The first of these is a session recorder.  Once activated, you can move throughout the interface and perform operations.  Nothing is executed against the database.   Instead the commands are recorded for later playback.  This adds a very nice macro capability that can be leveraged to perform repetitive tasks.

The second feature is a command line tool called ETSQLX.  ETSQLX is a multi-threaded, cross DBMS tool that allows you to execute a script against multiple datasources.  ETSQLX can be called directly from batch files or programs to automate tasks.  It is multi-threaded allowing a script to be run against several datasources simultaneously.  Output is file based and generated for each datasource a script runs against.  A full featured notification capability is also available allowing you to send an e-mail or net send message and even attach results to an e-mail that can be routed to multiple recipients.

The third feature is the integration with the Microsoft Task Scheduler.  This allows you to schedule tasks for later execution or periodic execution.

The final feature is a very exciting new development.  DBArtisan offers a significant amount of functionality and ease of use.  All of this functionality is now exposed in an object model.  This gives you the ability to weave components and functionality of DBArtisan into your applications.  Use it as the basis for a source code control system or embed script execution against multiple sources into your application.

This product review has been a long time in coming and many have wondered why.   Version 5.0 was released and to say I wasn't pleased would be an understatement.   After submitting several bug reports, I had some conversations with the product manager, technical support, some of the developers, and Embarcadero management.  They went back and worked on several of the bugs I had identified along with others that had been reported and quickly released version 5.01.  This same process was repeated through version 5.02 and finally 5.03.  Version 5.03 was finally stable enough for me to run in a production environment.  Throughout this process, Embarcadero has been extremely responsive to any problems that have arisen.  Version 5.03 has had a patch released for it as well.  You will want to ask for the file association patch to apply to your 5.03 installation to fix the last of the major bugs that I have found.

You might be wondering why it has taken almost 9 months to finally fix all of the major items to the point where I would run it in a production environment and recommend it.   Version 4.02 had a lot of functionality.  Version 5.03 blew the doors off the feature list.  There are several dozen new features that give a significant boost in functionality.  The feature set in version 4.02 made DBArtisan very easy to justify for your environment.  Version 5.03 makes this a no brainer.

Given that, DBArtisan still is not a complete replacement for Enterprise Manager.   It does not contain functionality for the following necessary features of SQL Server:

• Jobs/tasks
• Operators
• Alerts
• Replication
• DTS
• OLAP
• Full text catalogs
• Linked Servers
• SQL Mail

Embarcadero has several competitors in the database management tools arena.  DBArtisan had no competitors.  There is no other management tool on the market that can even compare to the depth and breadth of functionality that DBArtisan 5.03 brings to the table.   If you spend any amount of time managing your database environment, DBArtisan will pay for itself several times over.  I have become extremely dependent upon DBArtisan over the years.  The most difficult time was over the last several months as I was waiting to get the stability that version 5.03 offered.  Over the years I have paid for several hundred copies of DBArtisan in the amount of time it has saved.   DBArtisan 5.03 is manufacturer by Embarcadero Technologies.  As of the writing of this article, the cost of a single cross platform version of DBArtisan 5.03 was $999.

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