General
What are the licensing terms for ApexSQL DevOps toolkit?
ApexSQL DevOps toolkit is free. No additional licenses are required, other than your existing ApexSQL tools.
What steps can be included in the DevOps workflow?
What kind of documentation is generated?
Currently the ApexSQL DevOps toolkit offers full documentation of the newly created database. In version 2.0 we will allow for documentation of changes only.
What different ways exist to trigger a build?
Builds can be triggered in three ways:
- Manually, by starting the Build step on demand
- On schedule, for example nightly
- Automatically, triggered directly from source control changes
Where is the output of every step saved?
Output from every step is automatically saved in a centralized folder, that can be configured either through the PowerShell scripts or the dashboard. Each pipeline run will create new
...\PipelineName\Timestamp subfolders for all output files from that run.
Is there a job summary of the process created?
Yes. In the abovementioned centralized folder, a log file will be created for every workflow pipeline run, containing all summary information like when it was run, execution results about the individual steps and eventual errors encountered.
Will a pipeline abort if a step fails?
Yes. If the “Abort on fail” option is selected, when any step of the workflow encounters an error, the pipeline will stop. If this option is not checked, the process will ignore the error and move on to the next pipeline step.
Open source PowerShell scripts
Is the PowerShell source code available for download?
Yes. The complete set of the ApexSQL DevOps toolkit PowerShell scripts and cmdlets are available for download
What configuration is required to get started with the ApexSQL cmdlets?
Initially, the following parameters have to be set:
- Data sources
- ApexSQL notification options, that include the e-mail account settings to be used by the Notify step
- ApexSQL general options, like the pipeline name and output folder path
After that, each individual step can be configured with additional parameters, like ignoring certain objects, configuring synchronization options, modifying the generated documentation etc.
Web dashboard
What determines if a pipeline is CI or CD?
The ApexSQL DevOps toolkit Dashboard provides separate CI and CD templates, which differ in the steps they include:
- For CI, the included steps are: Notify, Build, Populate, Audit, Test, Review and Notify
- For CD, the available steps are: Notify, Schema sync, Data sync, Document, Package, Deploy and Notify
How can I know what is the status for each running step?
In the ApexSQL DevOps toolkit Dashboard’s main window, a progress bar will be shown next to each step indicating whether it is completed or running.
How will I be notified if my pipeline fails?
By configuring the Notify step with the appropriate parameters, you will be notified via e-mail if any of the steps fails and provided with the error description.
Build server plug-ins
What Build servers are plug-ins available?
The most popular Build servers are supported with our plug-ins: Bamboo, Jenkins, TeamCity, Team Foundation Server / Azure DevOps as well as Octopus Deploy through custom PowerShell templates.
Where is the output of every step saved?
This depends on the build server itself, as each one has different options regarding output files. Most often, all files will be saved in the build server agent’s folder, where the appropriate subfolders will be created for each pipeline.
How will I get notified if my pipeline fails?
Each build server has its own notification settings and templates that can be set up to keep you notified about the state of the pipeline or when an error is encountered.
