managing live and develop database

Hello,

I haven written a Windows program in Visual Studio 2005. This program stores data in and retrieves data from a SQL Express database. The customer is starting to use the program and filling the database with data. However the program is still under construction (new functionality will be added) and so is the database (new tables, views etc. will be added).

Of course I could send the customer the new database, but than all data already entered will be lost.....

I'm thinking about using the SQL Management Studio Express and VS2005 to connect remotely to the database (a VPN connection is availabe) but worry about performance issues.... Or should I use some kind of replication / synchronization and how, because this is new to me.

What is the best way to solve this 'problem' ?

hi,

Silencer#1 wrote:

Hello,

I haven written a Windows program in Visual Studio 2005. This program stores data in and retrieves data from a SQL Express database. The customer is starting to use the program and filling the database with data. However the program is still under construction (new functionality will be added) and so is the database (new tables, views etc. will be added).

Of course I could send the customer the new database, but than all data already entered will be lost.....

I'm thinking about using the SQL Management Studio Express and VS2005 to connect remotely to the database (a VPN connection is availabe) but worry about performance issues.... Or should I use some kind of replication / synchronization and how, because this is new to me.

What is the best way to solve this 'problem' ?

the best article I've read about database versioning and related issue is available at http://msdn.microsoft.com/msdnmag/issues/04/09/customdatabaseinstaller/ ... it support both "original" installation as successive metadata updates..

regards

|||

The short answer is that you should use scripts to update the schema of your deployed database. The article Andrea points to is a good one that discusses ways to deploy and update databases. A new tool to help you manage you database across versions and create scripts for upgrades is Visual Studio Team Systems for Database Professionals.

Mike

|||

After doing some research on the web I found out that InstallShield 12 from Macrovision is able to script SQL 2005 databases.

I have downloaed the trial version and created a sample installer and it worked perfectly !!. You can let the end-user specifiy the server to logon, how to log on (windows authentication or SQL login) and which catalog (database) to use.

|||

After a day of testing I found out that InstallShield works fine but is rather expensive !!
So I googled some more and ran into the products of Red Gate. They have several SQL products and one of them is called SQL Packager.
You can use this software to package your database or upgrade an existing database. You can package the database as a .NET executable or as an C# project.

managing live and develop database

Hello,

I haven written a Windows program in Visual Studio 2005. This program stores data in and retrieves data from a SQL Express database. The customer is starting to use the program and filling the database with data. However the program is still under construction (new functionality will be added) and so is the database (new tables, views etc. will be added).

Of course I could send the customer the new database, but than all data already entered will be lost.....

I'm thinking about using the SQL Management Studio Express and VS2005 to connect remotely to the database (a VPN connection is availabe) but worry about performance issues.... Or should I use some kind of replication / synchronization and how, because this is new to me.

What is the best way to solve this 'problem' ?

hi,

Silencer#1 wrote:

Hello,

I haven written a Windows program in Visual Studio 2005. This program stores data in and retrieves data from a SQL Express database. The customer is starting to use the program and filling the database with data. However the program is still under construction (new functionality will be added) and so is the database (new tables, views etc. will be added).

Of course I could send the customer the new database, but than all data already entered will be lost.....

I'm thinking about using the SQL Management Studio Express and VS2005 to connect remotely to the database (a VPN connection is availabe) but worry about performance issues.... Or should I use some kind of replication / synchronization and how, because this is new to me.

What is the best way to solve this 'problem' ?

the best article I've read about database versioning and related issue is available at http://msdn.microsoft.com/msdnmag/issues/04/09/customdatabaseinstaller/ ... it support both "original" installation as successive metadata updates..

regards

|||

The short answer is that you should use scripts to update the schema of your deployed database. The article Andrea points to is a good one that discusses ways to deploy and update databases. A new tool to help you manage you database across versions and create scripts for upgrades is Visual Studio Team Systems for Database Professionals.

Mike

|||

After doing some research on the web I found out that InstallShield 12 from Macrovision is able to script SQL 2005 databases.

I have downloaed the trial version and created a sample installer and it worked perfectly !!. You can let the end-user specifiy the server to logon, how to log on (windows authentication or SQL login) and which catalog (database) to use.

|||

After a day of testing I found out that InstallShield works fine but is rather expensive !!
So I googled some more and ran into the products of Red Gate. They have several SQL products and one of them is called SQL Packager.
You can use this software to package your database or upgrade an existing database. You can package the database as a .NET executable or as an C# project.

Management Studio Very slow to open

Hi,

I've had this problem with a VM and now on the Live box. I installed Windows Server 2003 SP1, then install SQL server 2005 and applied service pack 1.

As an administrator Management Studio takes approximately 2 seconds to open. However, if I log in to windows with any other local user account Manangement Studio takes approximately 1.5 minutes to open.

The whole interface is slow unless I use the administrator account to log into windows.

If anyone has a solution I would be very greatful as this is a new build for our production environment.

Thanks in advance.

Iain

Not sure if this will help, but if you have a look at internet explorer, on tools, internet options, advanced, security, check for publishers certificate revocation. I believe the default is enabled (ticked). On out NON-INTERNET facing DB machines, we have disabled that, and see a significant improvement in SSMS 'opening' time. I have heard that SSMS 'calls home' to check soemthing, and that by disabling this option, it no longer does this.

As I have it, the reason it can take so long is that on a non-internet facing machine, it waits for a timeout there.... true or not true ? I'm not sure, but I do know we are seeing a significant improvement

|||

https://blogs.msdn.com/euanga/archive/2006/07/11/662053.aspx

|||Thanks very much for post. I'm teaching it on XPsp2 machines and the timeout was about 10 mins. Very annoying and this fix sorted it straight away takes 1 second to open now. :)