Question

I’m looking for a way to validate the SQL schema on a production DB after updating an application version. If the application does not match the DB schema version, there should be a way to warn the user and list the changes needed.

Is there a tool or a framework (to use programatically) with built-in features to do that? Or is there some simple algorithm to run this comparison?

Update: Red gate lists ‘from $395’. Anything free? Or more foolproof than just keeping the version number?

Answer 1

Try this SQL.
– Run it against each database.
– Save the output to text files.
– Diff the text files.

/* get list of objects in the database */ SELECT name,         type  FROM  sysobjects ORDER BY type, name  /* get list of columns in each table / parameters for each stored procedure */ SELECT so.name,         so.type,         sc.name,         sc.number,         sc.colid,         sc.status,         sc.type,         sc.length,         sc.usertype ,         sc.scale  FROM   sysobjects  so ,         syscolumns  sc  WHERE  so.id = sc.id  ORDER BY so.type, so.name, sc.name  /* get definition of each stored procedure */ SELECT so.name,         so.type,         sc.number,         sc.text  FROM   sysobjects  so ,         syscomments sc  WHERE  so.id = sc.id  ORDER BY so.type, so.name, sc.number