Compare SQLClue and DDL Archive Utility

Comparing SQLClue and

Bill Wunder's DDL Archive Utility

Database Items Documented	Archive Utility	SQLClue
Active Directory (Server & Database)		•
Agent Alerts		•
Agent Operators	•	•
Agent Proxies		•
Alert System		•
Application Roles		•
Assemblies		•
Assymetric Keys		•
Audits (2008)		•
Backup Devices	•	•
Credentials		•
Certificates		•
Cryptographic Providers (2008)		•
Database Audit Specifications (2008)		•
Database DDL Triggers		•
Database Options	•	•
Database Mail		•
Defaults	•	•
Endpoints		•
Event Notifications		•
Full Text Catalogs		•
Full Text Services		•
Full Text Stop Lists (2008)		•
Job Server		•
Jobs	•	•
Logins	•	•
Linked Servers	•	•
Message Types		•
Partition Functions		•
Partition Schemes		•
Plan Guides (2008)		•
Policies (2008)		•
Proxy Account		•
Remote Service Bindings		•
Resource Govorner (2008)		•
Roles	•	•
Routes		•
Rules	•	•
Schemas		•
Server Attributes	•	•
Server Audit Specifications (2008)		•
Server Configuration	•	•
Server DDL Triggers		•
Server Information	•	•
Server Settings	•	•
Service Broker		•
Service Broker Priorities (2008)		•
Service Contracts		•
Service Queues		•
Services		•
Stored Procedures	•	•
Symmetric Keys		•
Synonyms		•
Tables	•	•
Table Triggers	•	•
Target Servers		•
User Defined Aggregates		•
User Defined Datatypes	•	•
User Defined Functions	•	•
User Defined Messages		•
User Defined Table Types (2008)		•
User Defined Types		•
Users	•	•
Views	•	•
View Triggers		•
XML Schema Collections		•

2008 = exist in SQL Server 2008 only

Technology Comparison

SQL Server Management Objects (SMO) replaces the COM base Distributed Management Objects (DMO) programming model used for the Archive Utility. The managed SMO model enables complete documentation of SQL Server 2005/2008 configuration (see chart) and retains the DMO level of support for documenting SQL Server 2000 instances.

SQL Server repository rather than SourceSafe. This not only eliminates the need for licensing and user deployment of Visual SourceSafe clients to use the repository but also eliminates the need for the archival process to rely upon the SourceSafe COM Interop assembly and the arcane SourceSafe API to slowly process the thousands of comparisons that may be necessary to identify only a few - or perhaps even no - changes.

Provides a basic scheduling service so that the automated repository data store can exist on any SQL Server 2008 Edition including the freely licensed SQLExpress. A SQL Server edition with Full-Text indexing capabilities is required to make use of SQLClue's search capabilites. This mean SQL Express with Advanced Services is required.

.NET managed service oriented application using a SQL Server database backend. Plain and simple. The UI uses the same managed classes as the service to assure consistent and robust maintenance activities. The only prerequisites to install SQLClue and use all capabilities of SQLClue are the .NET Framework v3.5 SP1 and a local SQL Server 2008 instance (any edition).

Asynchronous DDL and Trace Event driven repository updates. At the instant a change is made on a SQL Server 2005/2008 instance that is archived with Event Notifications enabled, SQLClue stages the change information to a Service Broker queue on that server. The EVENTDATA function returns an XML payload from these events thatincludes audit information including the user making the change and the T-SQL used to apply the change. The XML is collected from the queue to the central repository at scheduled intervals to allow easier management of any potential contention issues. Without Event Notifications enabled and for database server versions prior to SQL Server 2005, both SQLClue and the Archive Utility require that a script be generated for each object - whether that object has changed or not - on every monitored SQL instance and then compared to the repository to check for changes. Furthermore, if a script is release, reverted, modified, and then re-relesed to a production environment during the business day, the Archive Utility would find only the last change during the nightly archive. SQLClue will record each change. Event Notification based archives save time, greatly reduce resource requirements, and improve the quality and completeness of the archive.

Provides a user interface to compare items between SQL Server instance, items in the repository and file scripts. This compare supports user described REGEX regular expressions for object name matching, object name filtering and, comparison line replacements operations, and end of line definition. Regular Expressions used in the compare will never change any data and will allow the elimination of any false positives and false negatives during comparison operations.

ReportViewer reports capability included. The platform makes it simple to customize existing reports or build your own very quickly.

The SQL Server Administrator's Console