I am pretty new to SQL database maintenance and am running into a problem,
here's my scenario:

1) I have a "production" SQL server which holds the most current data
retrieved from a website
2) Also have a "development" database which is fundametally the same as the
"production", but may have additional columns added as the web application
evolves.
3) I need to be able to, at some point, transfer the structure of the
"development" database to the "production" database without loosing the data
in the production database. (by structure, I'm referring to table layouts,
keys, stored procedures, etc)

What is the easiest way to accomplish this? I'm having a hard time using the
DTS import/export wizard to import data into a table that has more columns
that the origonal, (getting a "Not enough columns bound" error).

thnx

If you need to make changes to the existing schema on the production machine
it is usually best to do it via ALTER TABLE type commands in a tested
script. There are several 3rd party tools out there that will compare the 2
db's and generate a change script that will get you started. One in
particular is SQL Compare from www.red-gate.com


--

Andrew J. Kelly
SQL Server MVP


"Ryan Moore" <ryanmoore (AT) hotmail (DOT) com> wrote

Don't suppose you know of any less expensive solutions???

thnx


"Andrew J. Kelly" <sqlmvpnooospam (AT) shadhawk (DOT) com> wrote

Don't know how much cheaper you can get<g>. You would be hard pressed to
find something as useful for the $195.00 cost of SQL Compare. The time it
saves you alone on the comparisons would be well worth it.

--

Andrew J. Kelly
SQL Server MVP


"Ryan Moore" <ryanmoore (AT) hotmail (DOT) com> wrote