Source Control – Curated SQL

Source Control without a Budget

Published 2025-03-31 by Kevin Feasel

Kevin Hill is looking out for tightwads like us:

Every DBA has been there. Trying to keep track of database schema changes while developers have their fancy Git repositories and version control workflows. Meanwhile, database changes are often handled through a mix of manual scripts, backups, and maybe a SharePoint folder full of “final_final_v2.sql” files.

Did you know that SQL Server already has a built-in tool that can help you track your database schema changes, without spending a dime on third-party tools?

I hadn’t thought about Kevin’s solution that way, but it does make a lot of sense as a way of quickly getting files into a source control repo.

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Git for the Power BI Developer

Published 2025-02-03 by Kevin Feasel

Paul Turley has a tutorial:

Both Azure DevOps and GitHub are supported Git hosts for Power BI and Fabric workspace integration. I will demonstrate using GitHub rather than Azure DevOps because, it is free for personal use. Getting started with GitHub is quite easy, and anyone can have a free GitHub account. Simply navigate to http://GitHub.com and sign-up for an account. You may create a personal or organizational account, and your personal account can be associated with multiple organizations.

Click through for the process.

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Using GitHub in SSMS 21

Published 2024-12-13 by Kevin Feasel

Brent Ozar ties into a Git repo:

SQL Server Management Studio v21 added native Git support, making it easier to use source control natively inside SSMS.

This feature is for developers who are already used to working with Github to manage specific object changes as they work, and who are already accustomed to Git terminologies like branches, commits, pushes, and pulls. This feature is not for DBAs who think it’s going to automatically keep your SQL Server’s object definitions inside source control for you. I totally understand why you’d want that, for sure, and I do as well, but our princess is in another castle.

Read on to see how it works. As I went through the article, my thought was that this is almost exactly the same experience as what you get with Visual Studio. And on the whole, I’d consider that a good thing, as this isn’t some implementation of 10% of the total functionality.

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A Mechanism for Change Management for DBAs

Published 2024-11-27 by Kevin Feasel

Terri Hurley shares one path:

Back in the day when I received an email from a developer who requested a Production Change, I would copy and paste SQL code from an email to SQL Server to run against a production database. I never bothered to save that code. But later when I was asked for a history of database changes, it was awkward to locate all the previous email requests asking for production changes. Fast forward to present day, most businesses have embraced Change Management Separation of Duties in companies of all sizes.

My preferred path to change management is:

All changes go into source control. You can either have the people making changes create the actual scripts to run, or generate them from base changes in source control, dealer’s choice.
Each changeset goes to a specific environment when it gets PR’d into the appropriate branch—that is, dev, QA, test, pre-prod, prod, post-prod, next-gen-post-dev-unprod, whatever.
DBAs are on pull requests, at least after a certain point. PR to dev? Let the team handle that code review. Once you move nearer to prod, at least one DBA performs a code review.
After PR gating happens, your CI/CD system automatically deploys the changes, assuming it passes any continuous integration tests.

This takes time to get right, but it’s very much worth the effort. I worked at a company where they built the release management processes on top of Git + Azure DevOps. You can also use tools like Flyway.

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Source Control Tips

Published 2024-10-25 by Kevin Feasel

Aamir Khan shares some tips on source control:

In software development, version control is an essential practice that helps manage changes to code and collaborates effectively with team members. A well-organized repository not only streamlines the development process but also enhances productivity and minimizes errors. In this blog post, we’ll explore best practices for maintaining a clean and organized repository, including branch naming conventions and crafting effective commit messages.

The primary audience for this is software developers, but if you create and modify SQL assets (tables, stored procedures, views, functions, etc.), source control is a great thing for many reasons, and this still applies to you. And if you write Powershell scripts because you’re “not a coder,” well, I have some shocking news for you.

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T-SQL Tuesday 177 Roundup

Published 2024-08-19 by Kevin Feasel

Mala Mahadevan gives us the low-down on database code management:

I was privileged to host yet another T-SQL Tuesday, for the month of August, 2024. My topic was on Managing database code. I was worried about getting responses, given that most of the community is no longer on X/Twitter and my invite didn’t seem to get much attention. I was wrong. People seem to keep track of this by other means and the response was excellent. Summary as below.

Read on for 11 takes on the topic.

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Database Code is Code

Published 2024-08-15 by Kevin Feasel

Tom Zika speaks the truth:

This month’s invitation is from Mala Mahadevan (b) asking us how we manage the database code. Since this is my passion project, I have a few basic tips to share.

I have yet to see a perfect implementation but even a partial one benefits you. My experience is mostly with enterprise-scaled environments – large servers, minimal downtime, brownfield development and also mostly single-tenant.

But these concepts and building blocks should be generic enough.

Read on for Tom’s thoughts, as well as some pros and cons of the state-based versus migration-based approaches for database changes.

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Microsoft Fabric GitHub Integration Security Considerations

Published 2024-07-30 by Kevin Feasel

Kevin Chant covers a bit of security:

I know the option to work with GitHub has got a lot of people excited. Which I why wanted to share my initial thoughts about security with you all. Because a lot of things have come to mind whilst testing this.

I want to highlight immediate implications and options before you all get too involved with testing. To make sure you test working with GitHub safely.

Plus, this post is really useful for those of you looking to test this in a regulated GitHub Enterprise environment. Because it will allow you to explain things to your GitHub administrators better, and/or forward them this post. To explain what you want to achieve.

Read on for Kevin’s thoughts on the matter.

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Testing GitHub Support in Microsoft Fabric

Published 2024-07-22 by Kevin Feasel

Kevin Chant gives it a try:

By the end of this post, you will see the results of my initial tests. Along the way I share plenty of links and some advice.

If you need help with any jargon used in this post, you can read my other post. Which is a Microsoft Fabric Git integration jargon guide for Fabricators.

One key point I want to highlight is that the GitHub support for Microsoft Fabric Git integration is currently in preview and the contents of this post are subject to change.

It’s been a long time coming, that’s for sure.

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Branch-Out in Microsoft Fabric

Published 2024-06-27 by Kevin Feasel

Marc Lelijveld covers a new bit of functionality in Microsoft Fabric:

Yesterday, Microsoft released a new option called “branch-out” that allows you to easily setup a new branch from an existing Fabric workspace. Obviously, this was already possible but involved a lot of manual work. With this new option, you can create your own feature branch to work in isolation before you commit your work to the central repository.

In this blog, I will deep dive more in this branch-out feature, how it works, including some things to keep in mind working with this feature.

Read on to learn more about the feature.

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Category: Source Control