This session teaches the basic concepts of Continuous Integration to an audience of DBAs. We cover what it is, how it works, what products and technologies are involved. We also show the challenges of CI for a SQL Database and how RedGate and TeamCity overcome those challenges.

1. Continuous Integration
By Ike Ellis
The Monastery
@ike_ellis
www.the-monastery.com
Blog.the-monastery.com
http://www.linkedin.com/in/ikeellis

2. The Integration/Deployment Process
• We do it when we feel like it
– Non-repeatable
– We don’t know what we do
– We just work until the bugs are gone…and then
we go home
• We do it daily
• We do it on a schedule
• We do it at every check-in to source control

3. Continuous Integration Means No
Developer Left Behind
Time
Main Trunk
New Dev Working

4. When Integration Time Strikes
• Longer Time = More Errors
• More errors to solve, means more time to solve errors
• Dev continues, prolonging error correcting time
• Integration might never happen
• $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
Time
Main Trunk
New Dev Working

5. Shorten the Time
• Less or no problems to solve
• Deployment can always happen
• Code on every workstation is in a build ready
condition
Main Trunk
New Dev Working

6. CI Benefits
• Avoids the “Works on My PC” syndrome
• All developers can get their work deployed and not be
left behind
• Tests can be run constantly, and breaking tests can
generate emails, thus inspiring code confidence
• Higher quality in code
• Automatically build documentation, remove unneeded
files, include dependencies
• Increased visibility of project
• Deployment can be separate from developers
• Easier to deploy dev environment to new developers

7. Working with Legacy Code
• First thing we do is deploy
• Can we deploy
• Is source control accurate?

8. CI Fundamentals
• Source Control

9. Source Control Products
• TFS
• Subversion
• Git
• Mecurial
• Perforce

10. CI Fundamentals
• Build Steps = Automatically Build Stuff =
Scripts
• Build Triggers = What makes us build?
• Build Agents = What can we do in the CI
process?
• Build Notifications = Who gets told what and
when?
• Build Correction = What went wrong and who
will solve it?

11. CI Products
• CruiseControl
• JetBrains = TeamCity
• MSBuild/TFS
• RedGate CI for databases

12. CI Physical Architecture
Dev Environment UAT Environment
Production
EnvironmentCI CI

13. CI Process (An Example)
• Step 1: Check in from source control
• Step 2: Build Trigger begins a build, CI takes
over
• Step 3: CI builds the solution
• Step 4: CI runs all the tests
• Step 5: CI copies data to a UAT server
• Step 6: CI notifies everyone a new build is
ready to test

14. CI Best Practices
• Check-in several times a day
• Merge changes at every check-in
• Don’t break the build (Get latest, merge, build,
check-in)
• If you broke the build, tell everyone, so they
can stop getting latest from source control
• Don’t check-in until the build is fixed
• Notify everyone once the build is fixed

15. The Problem with Databases
• Source Control/Versioning
• Merging Changes
• Tests
• Change Management
• Scripting Changes
• Continuous Integration

16. Red Gate Solves Those Problems
• SQL Developer Bundle
• Continuous Integration:
– http://www.red-gate.com/products/sql-
development/automation-license-for-continuous-
integration/
• SQL Source Control
– http://www.red-gate.com/products/sql-
development/sql-source-control/webinars

17. Demo
• TeamCity
• Red Gate CI/Team City Integration
• Red Gate database source control

18. Ike Ellis
• The Monastery
• http://blog.the-monastery.com
• http://www.the-monastery.com
• YouTube
• SQL Pass Book Readers
• San Diego Tech Immersion Group
• @ike_ellis
• 619.922.9801
• Email address is just my first name @the-
monastery.com.