Page History

This build includes many new features and fixed issues, including the following updates from previous releases.

5.0 New features

Microsoft Azure SQL Database v11 and v12 Preview support

IDERA SQL Comparison Toolset 5.0 offers full support for Microsoft Azure SQL Database v11 and the preview of v12. Comparing cloud-based or on-premise databases uses the same process within IDERA SQL Comparison Toolset. The toolset handles the platform differences automatically and produces any warnings for you to address when necessary.

SQL Data Compare also supports the Azure data restriction that a table or view must have a clustered index. The SQL Data Compare user interface includes a warning and a new popup window that displays a list of any tables or views excluded because of this restriction.

While IDERA SQL Comparison Toolset now supports Microsoft Azure SQL Database v12, only the Preview release was available during development of the IDERA SQL Comparison Toolset. Note that Microsoft may make changes before the final product release.

Multiple session support

IDERA SQL Comparison Toolset now allows you to have multiple sessions for the same SQL database. You can control this feature on the Workspace tab of the Application Settings window, as show in the following image.

Image Added

SQL Schema Compare Workspace tab user interface improvement

The SQL Schema Compare Workspace tab offers user interface improvements including:

• The Workspace tab now displays the session name for you to easily locate a session, even when there are multiple sessions for the same databases, as shown in the following image.
  Image Added
• The Databases tab of the Workspace now includes a cloud icon next to Microsoft Azure SQL Databases for you to distinguish between cloud and on-premise databases, as shown in the following image.
  Image Added

• A new landing page appears in SQL Schema Compare only when the Workspace is empty. The page makes it easier for a first-time user to navigate the toolset.

SQL Schema Compare refresh option

SQL Schema Compare introduces a new comparison option named Refresh referencing views when rebuilding a table. The option is located on the Scripting Options tab of the Comparison Options window, and it is disabled by default. When enabled, the table-rebuild portion of the schema synchronization script contains additional script that refreshes the views that reference the table that is being rebuilt. You can also use this option in the command line.

Image Added

SQL Data Compare user interface improvements for Microsoft Azure SQL Database v11

SQL Data Compare includes a new exclusion window that displays a list of database objects, such as table or views, excluded from data comparison due to the Microsoft Azure SQL Database v11 restriction related to missing clustered indexes. You can access this window from a link that appears during the pairing step of the data comparison. note that the link is visible only if the restriction has affected tables or views in the database.

Image Added

IDERA purchase and Trial Center support in trial versions

Two new buttons are included in the trial version of both the SQL Schema Compare and SQL Data Compare user interfaces. These buttons allow you to visit the purchasing page to upgrade a trial version of IDERA SQL Comparison Toolset to a full version, or allow you to access the Trial Center page for more information about using a trial version of this product. Note that these buttons appear only when you are using a trial version of IDERA SQL Comparison Toolset.

Image Added

5.0 Fixed Issues

• Fixes a “false” difference triggered by an unspecified TEXTIMAGE filegroup of a table. This prevents unnecessary table rebuilds.
• Performs an additional check before scripting the where clause of a database statistic. In some cases, SQL Server flags the stats as having a where clause, when they actually do not have one.
• Updates the spatial index script to handle unspecified grid levels. Schema comparison also ignores unspecified levels to prevent “false” differences between indexes.
• Adds the data compression option to the unique constraint’s scripting. The previous version did not consider data compression for unique constraints.
• Fixes an issue related to the collation of a column with a user-defined data type. Since collation for this type of columns can’t be scripted but could still trigger a difference, the collation clause is ignored during column comparison.
• Fixes an issue with assembly files. Now only the file name of an assembly is compared instead of including the path and the extension.
• During the SQL Server discovery, the previous version of IDERA SQL Comparison Toolset generated an error when no SQL Servers were found in the network. This issue effected the Add Database window in both SQL Schema Compare and SQL Data Compare.

4.1 New features

Windows .NET 4.0 support

...

• This release removes a table dependency that negatively affected performance for some users with large databases.
• This release fixes a table scripting issue with the TEXTIMAGE_ON clause. SQL Server requires the TEXTIMAGE_ON clause when a table contains large binary fields, such as image, text, and ntext. This issue caused the SQL Server system catalog to become out-of-date and fail to report the clause properly. IDERA SQL Comparison Toolset 4.1 contains additional checks and scripts the TEXTIMAGE_ON only when it is required.
• IDERA SQL Comparison Toolset 4.1 includes a fix related to dependencies on SQL Server 2005. This issue occurred on some SQL Server 2008 databases when the compatibility level was set to SQL Server 2005.

...

• The navigation tree now offers two tabs to separate live databases from database snapshots that are added to the workspace.
• Workspace links are grouped at the top of the window.
• You can adjust the width of the tree panel for ease-of use.
• The Application Settings window now allows you to customize the look and feel of the workspace including changing the colors of sessions to group similar sessions together.
• The Customize Session window includes new sorting options allow you to organize and manage your session history, edit session data such as name, description, and count. The Execution Count field in the Customize Session window indicates the number of times a session is launched.

...

SQL Comparison Toolset removal from the SQL Toolbox framework

The IDERA SQL Comparison Toolset is now separated from the SQL Toolbox, meaning that it is no longer necessary to install the IDERA SQL Toolbox framework prior to installing IDERA SQL Comparison Toolset.

...