Having a database under version control have it own advantages and disadvantages. K.Scott Allen recently has written a five part series on database version control. I think his article provide a very good background on getting the database under version control. Jeff Atwood also highlighted that the database are very often neglected in most project. To my understanding these articles seems to have assume that all database should be kept under version control. I think the first question should be whether version control for a database is required? The following are a few questions to ask yourself before deciding on whether you should have your database kept under version control:
- How many people have the right to make changes to the database?
- Is there any problem with the development and testing with a constant change made to the database?
- How many environments do you have from development to production?
- How is the deployment for the changes to the other environment carried out?
- Have scripts not meant to be deployed, been deployed during deployment?
- Any review done to the changes made to the database?
Application with big and multiple databases usually have more that one single person having the right to change any part of the database and this can be worrisome, as things can get out of hand easily. Version control will be able to help in keeping track what the changes are made over time. This is very useful for everyone involve in the project, from the developer to the DBA as everyone will be able to track the changes made. By using a shared database, how often and badly does it affects other developers working on the same project? If the impact is unbearable or consuming too much time and effort, then probably keeping the development database separately might be good. However, there is trade off as keeping database in sync is not going to be an easy task without proper process and tool.
Having too many environments such as development, multiple testing environment and production is going to make deployment an uphill task. With each environment in the different phase of a project will make things even more complicated. Therefore, with version control of the database, the different version or phase at the point of time can be easily identified. This will perhaps make the change management easier to manage and prevent wrong version from been release to production. If you find yourself in the mess described, my advice is to go ahead and get your database under version control.
Imagine with a click on the checked in log, you can easily track all the changes done to a database. This is the advantages that not only allows you to just track changes, but it also allow you to review the changes done and any wrong doing. From experience, the process of keeping a database under version control is complicated and can be tedious. If the process is not well thought enough and people not having a clear picture of the version control, result will be the above issue coming back haunting on you again. Therefore, the initially phase in adapting to new process can be difficult, but over the long run the result will obvious.
Having too many environments such as development, multiple testing environment and production is going to make deployment an uphill task. With each environment in the different phase of a project will make things even more complicated. Therefore, with version control of the database, the different version or phase at the point of time can be easily identified. This will perhaps make the change management easier to manage and prevent wrong version from been release to production. If you find yourself in the mess described, my advice is to go ahead and get your database under version control.
Imagine with a click on the checked in log, you can easily track all the changes done to a database. This is the advantages that not only allows you to just track changes, but it also allow you to review the changes done and any wrong doing. From experience, the process of keeping a database under version control is complicated and can be tedious. If the process is not well thought enough and people not having a clear picture of the version control, result will be the above issue coming back haunting on you again. Therefore, the initially phase in adapting to new process can be difficult, but over the long run the result will obvious.
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