Visual Studio SQL Server Database Project – Lookup Data
Lookup tables are defined and populated early in development to support other development efforts. Functionality at other layers in the solution can be driven off lookup values. Deploying lookup data and keeping it consistent between environments is critical to reducing issues.
Visual Studio SQL Server Database Project – The Basics
Visual Studio has long had a solution to manage a database’s schema, SQL Server Database Projects. Initially a part of the SQL Server Data Tools add-on, it’s now a feature in the Visual Studio installer for 2022 (and since 2019). Building the projects results in a DACPAC being generated. This is consumed by sqlpackage.exe to…
Automating Database Solution Deployments – Introduction
As a database developer or administrator of a data warehouse or custom application database, deploying changes is a regular occurrence. Whether it is a bi-weekly, monthly, or even quarterly event, a repeatable method is needed, especially for less frequent releases. Even with well-defined written procedures, manual deployments could result in issues coming up. A new…
SQLBits 2023 Recap – Part 1
After several months of planning and preparation (…just on my part – organizers spent much longer), SQLBits 2023 came and went this past week at the ICC Wales, near the beautiful community of Newport. This was my first trip to SQLBits, and I didn’t know what to expect. It was a really great conference, from…
Azure Pipelines – Deploy SQL Changes with Service Principal
Automating deployments with Azure Pipelines comes with security challenges. One of those is deploying DACPACs for Azure SQL DB/MI. We’ll cover how to setup Azure DevOps and Azure SQL to be more secure, using a service principal.
SQL Saturday Austin 2023 – Recap
For those who attended my session, “Introducing Automated Deployments with Azure DevOps,” thank you. I think we had a good discussion on multiple pieces covered in the slides. Speaking of the slides, here is a link to them – https://erindempster.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/sqlsaturdayaustin2023-devops.pptx In the main demo, a deployment pipeline was created to build AND release code to…
Azure Data Factory Deployment Mistake
Recently, I was working with a release pipeline to add our Azure Data Factory solution. This was the first attempt to release Azure Data Factory components. Of course, there were many issues to resolve. The release pipeline handles both databases from multiple Git repositories and now ADF code, so it’s no longer an out of…
SQL Saturday Boston Wrap-Up
SQL Saturday Boston was a major success, both for the event and for myself. The organizing committee did a great job bringing together a stellar group of speakers who covered many great topics. A HUGE thank you to New England SQL Server User Group for the opportunity to speak about PowerShell. Thank you to each…
Azure Dev Ops – Job-Focused vs Task-Focused
This is the first post in the series, Azure Dev Ops Odds and Ends. The starting page has information about the code environment I’m working with, as well as links to other posts in this series. The first step to consolidate builds into a single pipeline was to gather code from four repositories into a…
Azure Dev Ops Pipeline Odds and Ends
When one works in a smaller company, there is an expectation of wearing many hats. As the Data Operations Team Lead, I’m no different. In addition to working with SQL Server, Azure infrastructure, Azure Data Factory and more, I have started to tackle Azure Dev Ops. Specifically, I’m working to enhance, or streamline, existing build…