VSTS 2008 Database Edition GDR: First Impressions

Since I have to work through this thing to set up a test project to verify our build & deployment processes with the new tool (see my teeth grinding post below) I might as well post a spot evaluation of the tool as I go through it.

I’m creating a new database project (and I’d rather not talk about that). Rather than go through a wizard, I decided to create a blank database project and now I’m capturing the database by using the new Schema Compare. It looks mostly the same. One new thing that came up immediately is a “Permissions” folder. It has all the GRANT CONNECT, GRANT EXECUTE ON SCHEMA that I had in my database. In the 2005 version of VSTS, we maintained this stuff in post deployment scripts. I’ll see how we’ll be doing in the future.

Looking through what was created now. The “Storage” folder has a new folder inside it for “Files.” That used to be a part of the Project properties. So I jumped to there. Some changes. “Database Properties” and “File Groups” tabs are gone. There’s a new “Build” tab. “Static Analysis” has been renamed “Code Analysis” which makes sense.

OK. This is getting too detailed. I’ll be here all day. I’m going to focus on the specifics of build & deployment. If you need more info on what changed, go here, read the overview.

The new deployment processes seem wonderful. I’m creating multiple configuration files for database settings, deployment settings and sql command variables. These will allow me to define different behaviors on different servers and control it all through the configuration settings. Great stuff. I’ve already gone through it all and set it up. It’s easy. Unfortunately, it’s not working. I keep getting successful builds, but the deploys stop because of a warning about the collation settings being different between the project and target database. Unfortunately, I don’t have a target database. I’m trying to create one. Something is up. I’ll post more once I kick this.

2 thoughts on “VSTS 2008 Database Edition GDR: First Impressions

  • scarydba

    Good news/bad news. Yes, I got around it and the deployments are working great now, even for new databases. But, I don’t recall what it was that fixed that.

    One issue I have run into, when I’m introducing a new server or a new database, I’ve found that I have to do a full build & deploy to script only first, then do the build & deploy to the database server itself. Otherwise I get odd errors. This might be one of them.

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