One master and several client SQL Server''s on development projects

  • Hi,

    I am a recent employee working as a developer at a company. I have been assigned the task of making SQL server performance testing more efficient.

    We are here today: All developers use a laptop where Windows XP Professional SP2, Visual Studio.NET 2003, Visual SourceSafe 6 and SQL Server 2000 SP4 are installed. To create and fill the database when a project starts or when the database changes, two internally developed applications are used (one to create the database structure and one to fill it with data). This is done individually on each developer's laptop.

    An advantage of this is that all project members alwas have access to a SQL Server, even when not working at the office or when having Internet access. A disadvantage is that SQL Server performance is never tested thoroughly until it is all put together and tested in the production environment. This has caused us some problems in our latest project.

    This is where we want to be: We would still like to have SQL Server installed locally on each developer's laptop and also a "master" database at the office. Whenever a project starts or when the database structure or data changes all developers should "copy" the master database to their local computer. This should be done as automatically as possible but on the developers initiative.

    An advantage of this is that the "master" SQL Server database usage could be logged on a more project wide basis and more thoroughly performance tested.

     

    Questions:

    How would this be done? Are there any best practices for this scenario?

    Can the database structure and/or data be copied/replicated or imported/exported automatically on the clients initiative (not at a specific schedule)?

    Does anyone have any general input regarding this topic?

     

    I would be very grateful for any answers

    Best,

    /M

  • Have developers work on common development database, create backup of this database daily or more often as needed. Users may bring down a copy of this backup to their machine and restore it to their local server on the laptop. Hopefully your development database is not huge because this makes for a long process of restoring it on the laptop. All changes accepted as productional could be moved to a test server with more data for better load testing.

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