Using SQLCMD for Automated Deployments
By Tom Nonmacher
Welcome to SQLSupport.org! This blog post is going to guide you through using SQLCMD for automated deployments with a focus on SQL Server 2016, SQL Server 2017, MySQL 5.7, DB2 11.1, and Azure SQL. SQLCMD is a versatile tool which allows developers and database administrators to execute Transact-SQL commands, stored procedures, and script files directly from the command prompt, or from a script.
Before diving into the examples, ensure SQL Server Command Line Utilities are installed on your machine. These come bundled with SQL Server or can be downloaded separately from the Microsoft's official website. Once installed, you can access SQLCMD from the command prompt.
Let's begin with a simple example of how to connect to a SQL Server instance using SQLCMD. You can do this by specifying the server name (-S), user name (-U), and password (-P). The syntax would look something like this:
sqlcmd -S ServerName -U UserName -P Password
Now that we're connected, we can start running commands. For instance, to list all the databases in your SQL Server, you would use the following command:
sqlcmd -S ServerName -U UserName -P Password -Q "SELECT name FROM sys.databases"
In terms of automation, SQLCMD shines by allowing execution of script files. Suppose you have a file 'DBScript.sql' that you want to run against your database. You can do so by using the -i option followed by the script file name:
sqlcmd -S ServerName -U UserName -P Password -i DBScript.sql
In addition, SQLCMD can be used with Azure SQL databases. To connect to an Azure SQL Database, you would need to specify the fully qualified server name:
sqlcmd -S ServerName.database.windows.net -U UserName -P Password
Using SQLCMD for MySQL and DB2 requires a slightly different approach, since SQLCMD is a utility for SQL Server. However, one can use similar command line tools for these databases like MySQL's mysql command line tool and DB2's command line processor (CLP). These offer equivalent functionalities and can be incorporated into automated deployment scripts in a similar fashion.
To summarize, SQLCMD is an extremely powerful tool for automating database deployments. It offers flexibility and control, and can be combined with other command line utilities for comprehensive database management across different technologies. Happy scripting!