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RapidSQL 5.2 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 The target tab is what gives this feature its power. You can select multiple data sources to run the script against. The Script Execution Facility will connect to each server that you specify, execute the script, and continue on to the next data source. You will notice that there is a box at the bottom for a database name. This means you can execute the script against only one database and it has to be the same database across all data sources. This is another limitation that you will need to account for. I should be able to select the database to execute against on a server by server basis. It has the additional limitation that it can only execute against a single database per server. Unless you code that functionality into the script you are executing, you will have to run this once per database that you want to run the script against. The other thing that happens is that connections are left open. If it has to open a connection to a server to run a script, it should close that connection when it is done. Because it doesn't close the connections, you have to clean up after it. It can also introduce some barriers if you have not configured the options correctly. The option settings will be discussed in detail at the end of this review.The output tab allows you to specify how you want the output from the tasks displayed. The notify tab allows you to send a notification when the job completes. Even with the limitations inherent in the first generation of this feature, the Script Execution Facility alone can save you enough time in a large environment to justify the cost of RapidSQL. One of my clients has several hundred servers around the world. We have a set of administrative procedures on each server. Every once in a while, we will add a procedure, modify one, add jobs, or change job schedules. Without the Script Execution Facility, they had one DBA that would spend several hours connecting to each server and executing these scripts. In some cases, this could consume an entire day. The Script Execution Facility is available in both RapidSQL 5.2 and DBArtisan 5.03. In this case, we added DBArtisan 5.03 into the environment and reduced this time to less than 5 minutes to perform the same tasks.
There are four other features that really round out RapidSQL. The first of these is the ability to generate HTML reports for one or more objects. This provides some very nice on-line schema documentation. 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 data sources. 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 data sources simultaneously. Output is file based and generated for each data source 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. RapidSQL 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 RapidSQL into your applications. Use it as the basis for a source code control system or embed script execution against multiple sources into your application. The ease of use and productivity features provided by RapidSQL will give your development activities a large boost. I would recommend RapidSQL as an addition into your development toolset. I would pass on the version control integration and use your normal processes at this point until Embarcadero can iron out all of the bugs in the interface. RapidSQL 5.21 is produced by Embarcadero Technologies. As of the writing of this article, the cost of a single user license for the MS SQL Server platform version was $695. |
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