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LONDON, England, 2 November, 2004 – Innovartis Ltd, a Microsoft Certified Partner, have just launche
Added: (Tue Nov 02 2004)
The News
Innovartis Ltd, a Microsoft Certified Partner, have just launched DB Ghost™ version 3.1, a complete end-to-end database change management solution for SQL Server users, that builds, compares and synchronises databases directly from your Source Management System.
What DB Ghost™ Does
DB Ghost™ offers a solution that breaks away from the cumbersome methods of SQL server database change management, and is now considered to be one of the greatest accelerators to the application development lifecycle to reach the market in recent years. DB Ghost™ allows users to work with their SQL code in the same way they do with VB, ASP, C++ and Java, consequently eradicating many of the inherent timely and costly issues that are associated with application development. The DB Ghost™ process ensures that any changes to SQL Server source code are accurately reflected in all target databases in an auditable, reversible and repeatable way. And as the ability to audit SQL changes is now a reality, DB Ghost™ helps companies to fall in line with Sarbanes Oxley compliance as they now have the ability to see what, when and why changes were made to their databases along with who made them…down to the very last character.
In short, the DB Ghost™ process involves:
• As a one time process (using the free DB Ghost™ Data & Schema Scripter) script out your entire production database’s schema and static data into individual scripts, add these into your Source Management System (the DB Ghost™ Data & Schema Scripter will add these to SourceSafe) and instruct the team to use them in the same manner that they would VB, ASP, C++ or Java code.
• From that point on, in order to make a change, you check out the relevant script, make the amendments, execute it against your development database, do your unit testing/bug fixing and then check it back in when you’re finished.
• What you end up with is a set of base schema creation scripts that succinctly reflect the desired database schema. To propagate those changes you point DB Ghost™ at your target database and at the scripts in your Source Management System. DB Ghost™ will then verify that all the scripts compile, with no dependency errors, and make all necessary changes to the target database to ensure that it matches the scripts. Simple.
Existing DB Ghost™ Features
• Verify changes made to your database schema and static data.
• Report on all changes and errors.
• Automatically deploy changes.
• Compare two existing databases and make them match precisely.
• Compare an existing database against a set of base schema creation scripts (Stored Procedures, Tables, Views, Indexes, Foreign Keys etc.). This feature ensures DB Ghost™ works in harmony with your Source Management System.
• Builds new databases from scratch - just point it at a set of object creation scripts and let DB Ghost™ do the rest.
• Command line interface for automatic scheduling that works seamlessly with daily build processes.
• SessionSave facility means that you can script your upgrade answers to provide total automated repeatability.
• Intuitive, straightforward wizard based interface.
• Creates a script of the upgrade allowing you to upgrade databases even if they are not on your network – a feature required by the ISP community.
The New Features
• Multiple directories can now be chosen for SQL objects allowing DB Ghost™ to cater for any source code organizational structure.
• Collation comparisons can now be switched off.
• Column ordinal position can be enforced.
• User interface enhancements to make certain tasks easier to understand.
• Databases can be synchronized under all known conditions, i.e. changes that require a full table rebuild are now catered for.
• Processing can be aborted if the build part of the process fails.
Evaluation Copy
A 30-day trial copy of DB Ghost™ v3.1, which includes free technical support, can be downloaded from http://www.innovartis.co.uk/Evaluation.aspx. Innovartis Ltd have also provided a downloadable demo (with audio) that shows DB Ghost™ running through a simple scenario using the Northwind database.
The Company
Innovartis Ltd provide consultation and end-to-end database change management solutions for Microsoft SQL Server users.