The following SQL Change Automation cmdlets use SQL Compare and SQL Data Compare to compare database schemas:

• Invoke-DatabaseBuild
• New-DatabaseDocumentation
• Invoke-DatabaseTests
• New-DatabaseReleaseArtifact
• Sync-DatabaseSchema

SQL Compare options

SQL Compare has a range of options that allow you to configure what is compared between the schemas and modify certain other behaviours of the comparison.

The SQL Change Automation cmdlets use a set of sensible defaults for these options when they run a comparison. See Default SQL Compare options used by SQL Change Automation PowerShell module.

Using the -SQLCompareOptions parameter

Use the -SQLCompareOptions parameter with any of the cmdlets listed above to modify the comparison behaviour. You can turn off the default options or specify additional SQL Compare options.

Turning off a default option

Use -SQLCompareOptions to specify a default option you want to turn off. The option must be preceded by a minus sign.

$staging = New-DatabaseConnection -ServerInstance "staging01\sql2012" -Database "Staging" -Username "sa" -Password "P@ssw0rd"
$test = New-DatabaseConnection -ServerInstance "test01\sql2012" -Database "Test" -Username "sa" -Password "P@ssw0rd" 
New-DatabaseReleaseArtifact -Source $test -Target $staging -SQLCompareOptions "-ForceColumnOrder"

In this example, the ForceColumnOrder option is excluded from the SQL Compare options used by the New-DatabaseReleaseArtifact cmdlet. This means that the cmdlet will no longer force table column order in the database schema update.

Adding additional options

Use -SQLCompareOptions followed by a comma-delimited list of options to specify additional SQL Compare options.

$staging = New-DatabaseConnection -ServerInstance "staging01\sql2012" -Database "Staging" -Username "sa" -Password "P@ssw0rd"
$test = New-DatabaseConnection -ServerInstance "test01\sql2012" -Database "Test" -Username "sa" -Password "P@ssw0rd" 
$options = "IgnoreComments, ObjectExistenceChecks"
New-DatabaseReleaseArtifact -Source $test -Target $staging -SQLCompareOptions $options

In this example, the IgnoreComments and ObjectExistenceChecks options are added to the default SQL Compare options that the New-DatabaseReleaseArtifact cmdlet will use. You can use the alias rather the full option name, for example ic for IgnoreComments

For a list of SQL Compare options, you can include, see Options used in the command line (SQL Compare documentation).

SQL Data Compare options

Similar to the way SQL Compare options can be used to fine-tune the schema comparison behaviour, SQL Data Compare options can be used to customize the static data comparison.  

You can use -SQLDataCompareOptions parameter with any of the cmdlets listed above to modify the static data comparison behaviour.  

The default options are as follows:

• IgnoreSpaces
• IncludeTimestamps
• IncludeIdentities
• DisableKeys
• OutputComments
• ReseedIdentity
• MissingFrom2AsInclude

Use -SQLDataCompareOptions to specify a default option you want to turn off. The option must be preceded by a minus sign.

New-DatabaseReleaseArtifact -Source $test -Target $staging -SQLDataCompareOptions "-OutputComments"

Use -SQLDataCompareOptions followed by a comma-delimited list of options to specify additional SQL Compare options.

New-DatabaseReleaseArtifact -Source $test -Target $staging -SQLDataCompareOptions "DoNotOutputCommentHeader"