Looking for a tool that I can compare like db's on different servers.
I.E. I want to compare and see differences in the data on our dev
server versus our production servers.
Anyone know of a good one?

On Mon, 15 Sep 2008 10:55:32 -0700 (PDT), Keith wrote:

Hi Keith,

See my reply in comp.databases.ms-sqlserver. Please don't multi-post.

On Sep 15, 1:55 pm, Keith nycap.rr.com> wrote:

AlfaAlfa's SQL Server Comparison Tool (SCT) - www.sql-server-tool.com
- can compare data between tables, even in dbs on different servers.

You can select between two methods of comparisons - row-by-row
comparison or primary key comparison (in the second case, the program
will compare data with matching PKs). You can fine-tune comparison -
exclude selected columns, specify offset etc.

Comparison "sessions" can be saved and re-played later without need of
re-entering the parameters. Command line parameter can be used to
fully automate comparisons.

Dariusz Dziewialtowski.

Can you explain "row-by-row comparison"? Do you mean you inspect the data
in both tables and match rows manually? Or do you pick columns to "pretend"
they are the key? Otherwise, without a key (whether PK or UQ), how could
the software even attempt to guess at matching rows on its own?

First of all - apologies for the long post; feel free to skip it - as
a short answer let me say that when compared tables have no key or
indexes (or: one of the tables has keys, and another - not), the user
can additionally specify "sorting" columns for the purpose of data
comparison. All options in SCT (SQL Server Comparison Tool) were
added to handle particular real life situations, and over the years
SCT "accumulated" such options like: "Columns to be ignored during
comparison" or "Comparison offset".