Using SQL Server 2005\2008
Is there a way to copy a particular data row from one relation database to another similar database, along with its relational data? In a sense that all the other data (FKs) from this database which will need to be there for this particular data row to exist in destination database should also be copied.
I basically need to copy a particular scenario from the production box to test box, without copying the entire table \databases over to test systems.
I can definitely find all the Fk from this table and copy the data manually but that is too time consuming when the base tables keeps changing.
Any tool\ generic queries that can help me move a data scenario from one relational database to other.
I would use SSIS (SQL Server Integration Services) to transfer data from one database to another. It's scriptable and can be automated and scheduled if necessary.
here is my attempt to solve this problem and open source it.
Data Transfer Application
Related
Currently I have 3 (same code base apps) with it's own databases and own unique data. Were moving towards doing multi tenancy in rails, after a couple of prototype testing we've decided to go for a shared tenancy. My only biggest problem is that, each databases have their own data with unique ids and etc. How would it be possible to merge them either via sql command/dump or rails script that way they will have their own account_id + keep all data integrity?
Absolutely doable. It depends on a lot of details.
Basically I would
Make a full backup of all three.
Prep each database to hold compatible data (no duplicates).
Select one to be the new master.
Dump the other two (data only).
Hack the dump, to make sure. Typical COPY statements in dumps are just fine.
Restore data from the two additional database on top of existing data in the master.
Make sure all sequences are set properly.
Run vaccumdb -fz master.
I need suggestions on how i could accomplish this...
i have 3 employee solutions
Every solutions with its own DB
what im trying to do is to unify all these three DB into one. i would also like to be flexible enough to add some other employee solution in the future.
i would also like to use SSIS.
what i've been thinking is, creating a SSIS package where opens a DB and import all data, this SSIS package would use "something" where it says the column mapping of certain DB so the SSIS knows what clumns import...
I tried to be as clear as possible... Any ideas?
thanks in advance
So if you add a new employee to the central DB it should be pushed out to the other three. If the other 3 have different schemas and different platforms then when you add an employee you need to work out which db it is going to, and you need custom insertion code for each db. Also you need to think about what happens if the same person is accidentally added to the central and remote db with slightly different information. You'll end up with a duplicate in the remote db. This is more of a master data application than a reporting application if I understand your requirement correctly.
Your first step is to come up with a schema for your central db, and this has to accomodate all of the information in the three remote db's. Then you need to think about rules ffor merging information accross all these DB's. i.e. if one DB has 'Eye Colour' and the other two don't, and you then create an employee with eye colour into your central db, but the target db doesn't have that field, is that OK? What happens if someone changes the DOB in a source DB, is that meant to update the central DB. What if you do it in both DB's at the same time - who is the winner?
What is the business problem that you are trying to solve?
Firstly, let me apologize for the title, as it probably isn't as clear as I think it is.
What I'm looking for is a way to keep sample data in a database (SQL, 2005 2008 and Express) that get modified every so often. At present I have a handful of scripts to populate the database with a specific set of data, but every time the database is changed all the scripts have to be more or less rewritten and I was looking for some alternatives.
I've seen a number of tools and other software for creating sample data in a database, some free and some not. Are there any other methods I haven’t considered?
Thanks in advance for any input.
Edit: Also, if anyone has any advice at all in dealing with keeping data in sync with a changing application or database, that would be of some help as well.
If you are looking for tools for SQL server, go visit Red Gate Software, they have the best tools. They have a data compare tool that you can use to keep lookup type tables up-to-date and a SQL compare tool that you can use to keep the tables synched up between two datbases. So using SQL data compare, create a datbase with all the sample data you want. Then periodically refresh your testing db (or your prod db if these are strictly lookup type tables) using the compare tool.
I also like the alternative of having a script (you can use Red Gate's tool to create scripts) because that means you can store this info in your source control and use it as part of a deployment package to other servers.
You could save them in another database or the same db in different tables distinguished by the name, like employee_test
Joseph,
Do you need to keep just the data in sync, or the schema as well?
One solution to the data question would be SQL Server snapshots. You create a snapshot of your initial configuration, so any changes to the "real" database don't show up in the snapshot. Then, when you need to reset the table, select from the snapshot into a new table. I'm not sure how it will work if the schema changes, but it might be worth a try.
For generation of sample data, the Database project in Visual Studio has functionality that will create fake/random data.
Let me know if this make sense.
Erick
I have 3 computers having the same sql server 2005 database, I would like to gather the data from the 3 computers to another computer which has the same database. Please help me.
This is called "data conversion" and a lot of your work will be to determine uniqueness on each one of them and coming up with strategies to prevent collisions, mainly primary keys that likely are the same across these databases. No simple answer here, it can be a project in itself.
It might be difficult without any manual data transformation. It depends on your database and type of the data. For example what do you use as a keys? If you have sequential integers as a primary/foreign keys, then you will have to do some manual data transformation. IF you use GUIDS, it will get slightly easier, but you still have to ensure that for example some lookup tables doesn't have different guid keys for same items etc.. But there is no took for doing this automatically.
Maybe if you have some very simple data without any relations to other tables (like table with one column with text messages etc) you can script the data with SQL Server Database Publishing Wizard, and then execute the scripts against your target database.
You need to backup your databases by right clicking in Enterprise Manager and choosing backup before choosing the location etc.
After backing up you can then restore to your local Sql Server by right clicking and choosing restore.
After you have the data locally you will need to write queries to transfer the data to your local database.
Alternatively you can use something like Red Gates Sql Data Compare to compare and transfer data using a visual interface. Although this costs money.
Redgate SQL Toolbelt may be able to help you. You would first copy database to that another computer and then compare it with Sql Data Compare against 3 databases always copying data only one way (to your new database). However I am not 100% sure if it will work like i think it would. You would have to verify it yourself.
Like other people suggested some things like primary keys etc may be problematic.
I am writing code to migrate data from our live Access database to a new Sql Server database which has a different schema with a reorganized structure. This Sql Server database will be used with a new version of our application in development.
I've been writing migrating code in C# that calls Sql Server and Access and transforms the data as required. I migrated for the first time a table which has entries related to new entries of another table that I have not updated recently, and that caused an error because the record in the corresponding table in SQL Server could not be found
So, my SqlServer productions table has data only up to 1/14/09, and I'm continuing to migrate more tables from Access. So I want to write an update method that can figure out what the new stuff is in Access that hasn't been reflected in Sql Server.
My current idea is to write a query on the SQL side which does SELECT Max(RunDate) FROM ProductionRuns, to give me the latest date in that field in the table. On the Access side, I would write a query that does SELECT * FROM ProductionRuns WHERE RunDate > ?, where the parameter is that max date found in SQL Server, and perform my translation step in code, and then insert the new data in Sql Server.
What I'm wondering is, do I have the syntax right for getting the latest date in that Sql Server table? And is there a better way to do this kind of migration of a live database?
Edit: What I've done is make a copy of the current live database. Which I can then migrate without worrying about changes, then use that to test during development, and then I can migrate the latest data whenever the new database and application go live.
I personally would divide the process into two steps.
I would create an exact copy of Access DB in SQLServer and copy all the data
Copy the data from this temporary SQLServer DB to your destination database
In that way you can write set of SQL code to accomplish second step task
Alternatively use SSIS
Generally when you convert data to a new database that will take it's place in porduction, you shut out all users of the database for a period of time, run the migration and turn on the new database. This ensures no changes to the data are made while doing the conversion. Of course I never would have done this using c# either. Data migration is a database task and should have been done in SSIS (or DTS if you have an older version of SQL Server).
If the databse you are converting to is just in development, I would create a backup of the Access database and load the data from there to test the data loading process and to get the data in so you can do the application development. Then when it is time to do the real load, you just close down the real database to users and use it to load from. If you are trying to keep both in synch wile you develop, well I wouldn't do that but if you must, make a nightly backup of the file and load first thing in the morning using your process.
You may want to look at investing in a tool like SQL Data Compare.
I believe it has support for access databases too, and you can download a trial.
I you are happy with you C# code, but it fails because of the constraints in your destination database you temporarily can disable them and then enable after you copy the whole lot.
I am assuming that your destination database is brand new DB with no data, and not used by anyone when the transfer happens
It sounds like you have two problems:
You're migrating data from one database to another.
You're changing your schema.
Doing either of these things is tricky if you are trying to migrate the data while people are using the data.
The simplest approach is to migrate the data based on a static copy of the data, and also to queue updates to that data from the moment you captured the static copy. I don't know how easy this is in Access, but in SQLServer or Oracle you can use the redo logs for this or a manual solution using triggers. The poor-man's way of doing this is to make triggers for all the relevant tables that log the primary key of the records that have changed. Then after the old database is shut off you can iterate over those keys and get those records from the old database and put them into the new database. Just copy the whole record; if the record was deleted then delete it from the new database.
Your problem is compounded by the fact that you can't simply copy the data, you have to transform it. This means you probably have to shut down both databases and re-migrate the records based on the change list. It will take a lot of planning to ensure you get things right and I'd recommend writing a testing script that can validate that the resulting data is correct.
Also I'd ensure that the code for the migration runs inside one of the databases if possible. Otherwise you are copying the data twice and this will significantly harm the performance.