Objectives of 3-Part Series:
Part I: Setting up the Example Database and Visual Studio Projects
- Setup and configure a new instance of SQL Server 2008 R2
- Setup and configure a copy of Microsoft’s Adventure Works database
- Create and configure both a Visual Studio 2010 server project and Visual Studio 2010 database project
- Test the project’s ability to deploy changes to the database
Part II: Converting the Visual Studio 2010 Database and Server Projects to SSDT
- Convert the Adventure Works Visual Studio 2010 database and server projects to SSDT projects
- Create a second Solution configuration and SSDT publish profile for an additional database environment
- Test the converted database project’s ability to publish changes to multiple database environments
Part III: Automate the Building and Publishing of the SSDT Database Project Using Jenkins
- Automate the build and delivery of a sql change script artifact, for any database environment, to a designated release location using a parameterized build.
- Automate the build and publishing of the SSDT project’s changes directly to any database environment using a parameterized build.
Background
Microsoft’s Visual Studio 2010 (VS 2010) IDE has been available to developers since April, 2010. Microsoft’s SQL Server 2008 R2 (SQL 2008 R2) has also been available since April, 2010. If you are a modern software development shop or in-house corporate development group, using the .NET technology stack, you probably use VS 2010 and SQL 2008 R2. Moreover, odds are pretty good that you’ve implemented a Visual Studio 2010 Database Project SQL Server Project to support what Microsoft terms a Database Development Life Cycle (DDLC).
Now, along comes SSDT. Recently, along with the release of SQL Server 2012, Microsoft released SQL Server Data Tools (SSDT). Microsoft refers to SSDT as “an evolution of the existing Visual Studio Database project type.” According to Microsoft, SSDT offers an integrated environment within Visual Studio 2010 Professional SP1 or higher for developers to carry out all their database design work for any SQL Server platform (both on and off premise). The term ‘off premises’ refers to SSDT ‘s ability to handle development in the Cloud – SQL Azure. SSDT supports all current versions of SQL Server, including SQL Server 2005, SQL Server 2008, SQL Server 2008 R2, SQL Server 2012 and SQL Azure.
SSDT offers many advantages over the VS 2010 database project type. SSDT provides a more database-centric user-experience, similar to SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS). Anyone who has used VS 2010 database project knows the Visual Studio experience offered a less sophisticated user-interface than SSMS or similar database IDE’s, like Toad for SQL. Installing Microsoft’s free SSDT component, after making sure you have SP1 installed for VS 2010 Professional or higher, you can easily convert you VS 2010 database projects to the new SSDT project type. The conversion offers a better development and deployment experience, and prepare you for an eventual move to SQL Server 2012.
Part I: Setting up the Example Database and Visual Studio Projects
Setting up the Example
To avoid learning SSDT with a copy of your client’s or company’s database, I suggest taking the same route I’ve taken in this post. To demonstrate how to convert from a VS 2010 database project to SSDT, I am using a copy of Microsoft’s Adventure Works 2008 database. Installed, the database only takes up about 180 MBs of space, but is well designed and has enough data to use as a good training tool it, as Microsoft intended. There are several version of the AdventureWorks2008 database available for download depending on your interests – OLTP, SSRS, Analysis Services, Azure, or SQL 2012. I chose to download the full database backup of the AdventureWorks2008R2 without filestream for this post.
Creating the SQL Server 2008 R2 Instance and Database
Before installing the database, I used the SQL Server Installation Center to install a new instance of SQL Server 2008 R2, which I named ‘Development’. This represents a development group’s database environment. Other environments in the software release life-cycle commonly include Testing, Staging, and Production. Each environment usually has its own servers with their own instances of SQL Server, with its own copy of the databases. Environments can also include web servers, application servers, firewalls, routers, and so forth.
After installing the Development instance, I logged into it as an Administrator and created a new empty database, which I named ‘AdventureWorks’. I then restored the downloaded backup copy of Adventure Works 2008 R2, which I downloaded, to the newly created Adventure Works database.
Creating the New Database
Creating the New Database
Creating the Database: Restoring the Full Backup
Creating the Database: Restoring the Full Backup
Creating the Database: Restoring the Full Backup
You may note some differences between the configuration settings displayed below in the screen grabs and the default configuration of the Adventure Works database. This post is not intended to recommend configuration settings for your SQL Server databases or database projects. Every company is different in the way it configures its databases. The key is to make sure that the configuration settings in your database align with the equivalent configuration settings in the database project in Visual Studio 2010. If not, when you initially publish changes to the database from the database project, the project will script the differences and change the database to align to the project.
Creating the Database: Database Properties
Creating the Server Login and Database User
Lastly in SSMS, I added a new login account to the Development SQL Server instance and a user to the Adventure Works database, named ‘aw_dev’. This user represents a developer who will interact with the database through the SSDT database project in VS 2010. For simplicity, I used SQL authentication for this user versus Windows authentication. I gave the user the minimal permissions necessary for this example. Depending on the types of interactions you have with the database, you may need to extend the rights of the user.
New Database Login
New Database Login
Two key, explicit permissions must be assigned for the user for SSDT to work properly. First is the ‘view any definition’ permission on the Development instance. Second is the ‘view definition’ permission on the Adventure Works database. These enable the SSDT project to perform a schema comparison to the Adventure Works database, explained later in the post. Lack of the view definition permission is one of the most common errors I’ve seen during deployments. They usually occur after adding a new database environment, database, database user, or continuous integration server.
New Database Login: ‘View any definition’ Permission
New Database Login: ‘View definition’ Permission
Setting up Visual Studio Database Project
In VS 2010, I created a new SQL Server 2008 database project, named ‘AdventureWorks2008’. In the same Visual Studio Solution, I also created a new SQL Server 2008 server project, named ‘Development’. The database projects mirrors the schema of the Adventure Works database, and the server project mirrors the instance of SQL Server 2008 R2 on which the database is housed. The exact details of creating and configuring these two projects are too long for this post, but I have a set of screen grabs, hyperlinked below, to aid in creating these two projects. For the database project, I only showed the screens that are signficantly different then the server project screens to save some space.
Server Project
VS 2010 Server Project: New Project SQL Server 2008 Wizard
VS 2010 Server Project: New Project SQL Server 2008 Wizard
VS 2010 Server Project: Project Properties
VS 2010 Server Project: Set Database Options
VS 2010 Server Project: Import Database Schema
VS 2010 Server Project: Database Connection Properties
VS 2010 Server Project: Configure Build and Deploy
Database Project
VS 2010 Database Project: New Project SQL Server 2008 Wizard
VS 2010 Database Project: Project Properties
VS 2010 Database Project: Summary
Reference from Database Project to Server Project
After creating both projects, I created a reference (dependency) from the Adventure Works 2008 database project to the Development server project. The database project reference to the server project creates the same parent-child relationship that exists between the Development SQL Server instance and the Adventure Works database. Once both projects are created and the reference made, your Solution should look like the second screen grab, below.
Adding a Reference to the Database Project
Database Project Dependencies
Final View of VS 2010 Solution with both Projects and Reference
Creating the Development Solution Configuration
Next, I created a new ‘Development’ Solution configuration. This configuration defines the build and deployment parameters for the database project when it targets the Development environment. Again, in a normal production environment, you would have several configurations, each targeting a specific database environment. In the context of this post, a database environment refers to a unique combination of servers, server instances, databases, data, and users. For this first example we are only setting up one database environment, Development.
New Development Solution Configuration
New Development Solution Configuration
The configuration specifies the parameters specific to the Adventure Works database in the Development environment. The connection string containing the server, instance, and database names, user account, and connection parameters, are all specific to the Development environment. They are different in the other environments – Testing, Staging, and Production.
Testing the Development Configuration
Once the Development configuration was completed, I ran the ‘Rebuild’ command on the Solution, using the Development configuration, to make sure there are no errors or warnings. Next, with the Development configuration set to only create the deployment script, not to create and deploy the changes to the database, I ran the ‘Deploy’ command. This created a deployment script, entitled ‘AdventureWorks2008.sql’, in the ‘sql\Development’ folder of the AdventureWorks2008 database project.
Database Project Configuration Settings to Create a Deployment Script Only
Deployment Script Location in Project
Since I just created both the Adventure Works database and the database project, based on the database, there are no schema changes in the deployment script. You will see ‘filler’ code for error checking and so forth, but no real executable schema changes to the database are present at this point. If you do see initial changes included in the script, usually database configuration changes, I suggest modifying the settings of the database project and/or the database to align to one another. For example, you may see code in the script to change the database’s default cursor from global to local, or vice-versa. Or, you may also see code in the script to the databases recovery model from full to simple, or vice-versa. You should decide whether the project or the database is correct, and change the other one to match. If necessary, re-run the ‘Deploy’ command and re-check the deployment script. Optionally, you can always execute the script with the changes, thus changing the database to match the project, if the project settings are correct.
Testing Deployment
After successfully testing the development configuration and the deployment script, making any configuration changes necessary to the project and/or the database, I then tested the project’s ability to successfully execute a Deploy command against the database. I changed the Development configuration’s deploy action from ‘create a deployment script (.sql)’ to from ‘create a deployment script (.sql) and deploy to the database’. I then ran the ‘Deploy’ command again, and this time the script is created and executed against the database. Since I still had not made any changes to the project, there were no schema changes made to the database. I just tested the project’s ability to create and deploy to the database at this point. Most errors at this stage are insufficient database user permissions (see example, below).
Test Deployment to the Database
View Any Definition Permission Error
Testing Changes to the Project
Finally, I tested the project’s ability to make changes to the database as part of the deployment. To do so, I created a simple post-deployment script that changes the first name of a single, existing employee. After adding the post-deployment script to the database project and adding the script’s path to the post-deployment script file, I again ran the ‘Deploy’ command again, still using the Development configuration. This time the deployment script contained the post-deployment script’s contents. When deployed, one record was affected, as indicated in VS 2010 Output tab. I verified the change was successful in the Adventure Works database table, using SSMS.
Simple Post-Deployment Script
Simple Post-Deployment Script
Post-Deployment Script Location in Project
One Row Affected by Deployment this Time
Before Post-Deployment Script was Deployed
After Post-Deployment Script was Deployed
Conclusion
We now have a SQL Server 2008 R2 database instance representing a Development environment, and a copy of the Adventure Works database, being served from that instance. We have corresponding VS 2010 database and server projects. We also have a new Development Solution configuration, targeting the Development environment. Lastly, we tested the database project’s capability to successfully build and deploy a change to the database.
In Part II of this series, I will show how to convert the VS 2010 database and server projects to SSDT.
Programmatic Ponderings 