schema changes

Stairway icons Database Deployments

Defining the Deployment Contract: Stairway to Reliable Database Deployments Level 2

  • Stairway Step

Level 2 formalizes the behavioral guarantees that a changeset must provide in order to be safely deployed and rolled back. It introduces the deployment contract, checkpoint semantics, and the structural scope of Create and Rollback scripts. Data changes are addressed through a dedicated Update mechanism, with clear boundaries and limitations. By the end of this level, a changeset becomes a predictable and well-defined unit that can be reasoned about independently of execution context.

★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

You rated this post out of 5. Change rating

2026-05-06

1,296 reads

External Article

Allowing for manual checks and changes during database deployments

  • Article

SQL Change Automation enables users to make database changes to production safely and efficiently using PowerShell cmdlets, which can be integrated easily into any release management tool. This article will show you how to automate database deployments safely, by using SQL Change Automation from within PowerShell scripts, and how a deployment script for a release can be checked and amended as part of the process.

2020-06-15

Blogs

Goodbye, Microsoft

By

A few years ago I took a new job at Microsoft, working as a...

The SUM of Nothing: #SQLNewBlogger

By

I caught this interesting item over on Pinal Dave’s blog: Eleven Interview Questions that...

How to Move the SSMS Status Bar to the Top and Color-Code SQL Server Connections

By

I use color-coded connections in SSMS to distinguish Production, Pre-Production, UAT, and Development. But...

Read the latest Blogs

Forums

Building a SQL Server Fleet Audit That Leadership Actually Reads

By Mayank Sethi

Comments posted to this topic are about the item Building a SQL Server Fleet...

Smart AI Agents and Data Security

By Steve Jones - SSC Editor

Comments posted to this topic are about the item Smart AI Agents and Data...

RegEx Functions IV

By Steve Jones - SSC Editor

Comments posted to this topic are about the item RegEx Functions IV

Visit the forum

Question of the Day

RegEx Functions IV

I have this data in a table in a SQL Server 2025 database: 

EmailAddressID EmailAddress
7              dylan0@ADVENTURE-WORKS.COM
8              Diane1@ADVENTURE-WORKS.COM
If I run this query, which row(s) are returned? 
SELECT top 10
 *
 FROM person.EmailAddress
 WHERE REGEXP_LIKE(EmailAddress, '^D', 'i')
 AND BusinessEntityID IN (7,8)

See possible answers