If you are a database developer or administrator, you may have encountered a situation where you need to selectively compare and synchronize schemas between different database servers. In this blog post, we will discuss a real-life scenario and a tool that can help you achieve this goal.

The Story of My Early Career

In the early days of my career, I used to develop everything on my local machine. Both the application and the database resided on the same box. I was assigned specific modules or sections to work on, and I couldn’t go beyond that scope. This modular approach made it easy to deploy the code once the project was completed.

However, things became challenging when I went on vacation and my colleague, Romesh, took over my project. Upon my return, Romesh wanted to hand over the entire project to me and continue with his own project. The problem was that his project and mine were completely different. Although we shared the same database, the tables and stored procedures we worked on were mostly different.

The Epic Dilemma

Our dilemma was how to selectively synchronize the schema changes from Romesh’s machine to mine. I didn’t want to import the schema of his project, as it would complicate my deployment. I only needed the objects that belonged to my project.

Selective Schema Compare Detection and Synchronization

After some online research, we came across Embarcadero’s DB Change Manager. We downloaded the trial version and used it to perform a selective schema comparison. This tool proved to be easy to use, guiding us through a wizard that instantly detected the schema changes between our database servers.

We applied filters to indicate which tables belonged to my project and which ones belonged to Romesh’s project. This allowed us to focus on the selective changes. Once the changes were detected, we used the manual synchronization feature to generate a deployment script for my database server.

With the script in hand, I was able to seamlessly continue with my project. Tools like Embarcadero’s DB Change Manager can greatly enhance the efficiency of your work life by simplifying complex schema comparisons and synchronizations.

Watch this quick video demonstration to see how Embarcadero’s DB Change Manager can help you compare schemas:

Download Embarcadero’s DB Change Manager to experience its benefits firsthand.

Let us know what you think of this video and how selective schema compare and synchronization has helped you in your SQL Server projects.