26Feb 2015 by Grant Fritchey 3 Comments

How to do DevOps as a SQL Server DBA

Database Lifecycle Management, DevOps
You recognize that you need to provide a pipeline for database deployments, that you need to automate as much support for your development teams as you possibly can, that you have to have testing in place to ensure protection of the production environment, that you need to speed your processes. In short, you recognize the need for taking on a DevOps approach, an Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) approach, even, a Database Lifecycle Management (DLM) approach. Cool. Now what? Well, there are three fundamentals that you need to get under your belt. You need to get your database into source control. You need to set up a continuous integration process. You need to set up automated deployments. All tough nuts to crack. Hey, we get it. That's why Redgate Software is going…
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20Oct 2014 by Grant Fritchey 4 Comments

Database Lifecycle Management

Redgate Software
There are lots of people who talk about Application Lifecycle Management. But, the database is a major part of every application and if you do a similar search, there aren't very many people talking about Database Lifecycle Management at all. Why not? I'm positive you're deploying a database with your applications. I'm also positive, because of the unique problems that databases present, primarily around data persistence, that you need to think about how to get your database(s) deployed. Unfortunately, even for strong, capable data professionals, deployment is something thought about later. Or, you're still doing the old school method of waiting until there's a deployment script that you're going to review, line-by-line, before you run it against production. There's a better way. What you need to do is start thinking…
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30Jun 2014 by Grant Fritchey 11 Comments

The Curse of Working With A DBA

DevOps, Professional Development
I no more than finished my rant from last week than I started thinking about all the reasons why a healthy chunk of the reasons that developers want to bypass relational database is not the horror of the relational database itself, although, that's there. No, a very large reason why is the DBA. We're on a blog called The Scary DBA. I earned that title, well sometimes. Sometimes I got it and I wasn't sure why. However, it's perfectly in keeping with how many people view their database administrators; grumpy, obstructionist, slow, difficult, control freak, etc.. There are even jokes about it, "What's the DBAs favorite word? No!" And for those answering "It depends" that's two words. I understand why. In large part it's that phone in your pocket (used…
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