Hello;

First off, let me say that I'm not a DBA, I'm more of a web application
developer that has to wear many hats (but I did pass the 70-229 test So,
that being said...

My client has two databases: Database A and Database B

Database B was built off of Database A, but has a few more tables and a few
of the tables have been modified (new fields added.) Both databases are
now full of data (no duplicate records), and it's now my job to merge
Database A into Database B. Is this a job for DTS? Is there any other tool
that can make this job easier?

I've used DTS to copy data into empty database before, but I've never tried
to merge two database together. Any advice on doing this would be
appreciated!

Sincerely,
Todd M. Taylor

I dont think that DTS is the solution!!

You can programm a general procedure that compare tables and merge data if
needed .

you can also visit this site provinding tools to compare databases !!!

http://www.red-gate.com/sql/version30x_sql_compare.htm

hch

"Todd M. Taylor" a écrit :

This is not necessarily that easy. You want to take rows from one
database and insert them into another. What happens when primary key
values get mixed up i.e. taken already by the destination? The answer
would be a mapping table to map the old to the new so that PK/FK
relationships do not get shot.

Also what will happen if the destination already has an instance of the
thing from the source? Who is the golden source? Should you do an
update? The answer to this one is that it depends.

Ideally you would have had something in place at the database creation
time so you could have used Merge replication perhaps to do the
synching. This though may have introduced problems for your apps
because it will add columns to your source and destination tables.

If you want to just copy over the destination with what is in the source
and the destination has not had a life of its own then you may just want
to blow it away and do a RESTORE from last night's backup of the source.


In summary then this may not be as easy as you hope unfortunately.


Allan

"Todd M. Taylor" <flygtiguy (AT) NOSPAMhotmail (DOT) com> wrote

Allan;

The issues which you have addressed (primary key issues, etc.) are the ones
that came to my mind as well and I don't really know how to resolve them. I
guess I'll have to keep looking for some help on this ;-S

Sincerely,
Todd M. Taylor


"Allan Mitchell" <allan (AT) no-spam (DOT) sqldts.com> wrote

Thanks for the link, HCH. I take a look at the Red Gate software and see if
it can't help me out.

Sincerely,
Todd M. Taylor


"hch" <hch (AT) discussions (DOT) microsoft.com> wrote