1. -
DAC
DBA-

2. Underutilized
hardware
Overburdened
Administrators
1990 2000 2010

3. Having fun with deployment

4. DAC •
•
•

7. Challenges
Development
• No uniform DB
project system and
workflow
Deployment
Management
• DBAs and
• Difficult to centrally
Developers work in
control the
silos
environment
• Time consuming and
error prone

8. Investments
Development
• Data-tier Application
project
• Integrated editor, debugger,
IntelliSense, policy designer
• Static code analysis, build
service
Deployment Management
• Easier to deploy • Manage @ Scale: SQL
and upgrade Data- Server Control Point
tier Apps from VS • Visualize resource
and SSMS (and now utilization at the
SSDT) instance & application
level

9. Concepts
.dacpac = unit of deployment (data-
tier application + developer intent) Schema
LOGICAL
Data-tier Application Component Tables,
PHYSICA
L
• Improves collaboration between Views, Users,
Procs, Logins,
developer and DBA UDFs Indexes
• Moves developers from a
procedural model to a declarative
model DAC Deployment Profile
Deployment Requirements,
Management Policies

10. Data-Tier Applications
Data-Tier Applications
• Often referred to as the DAC Framework (or DAC Fx)
• Collection of APIs, file and data formats, and services
• Dramatically simplify database deployment and
versioning
• Fully integrated into SSDT and essential for developers!
• Allows a focus on the data model rather than on scripts
• Target on-premises or cloud

11. UCP- Enterprise Edition Only •
•
•
AdventureWorks- •
Side by Side DAC •
Data- •
•

12. v2 DAC Upgrade
• Side-by-side process
• Data migrated to new database
• Retained copy of previous database
v3 DAC Upgrade
• Shipped with SQL Server 2012
• Supports in-place upgrades
• No need to copy/migrate all the data (#1 requested feature)
• Support for SQL Server 2005 SP4 (or later) and SQL Azure
• Need to ensure sufficient transaction log space is available for
upgrade process
• PowershellIncrementalUpgrade() method added

13. Enhanced Object Support
Significant enhancement to list of supported
objects
• 98% SQL Azure parity
• Support added for permissions and roles
Enhanced database object support:
Newly Supported Objects
SYNONYM SEQUENCE
SPATIAL INDEX GEOMETRY
GEOGRAPHY HIERARCHYID
Cursor Parameters in Stored Procedures STATISTICS

14. Platform Targeting
Single project can target multiple platforms
• Versions of SQL Server
• SQL Azure
Build prevents use of unsupported features
for platform
Easy migration of databases to SQL Azure
• Create down-level .dacpac file

15. Demo

16. Database Project vs. DAC Project
Database Project Data-tier Application Project V1
(Mission Critical, Business Critical) (Small Apps)
Visual Visual
Studio Studio
Build Build
Generate
.dbschema .dacpac
scripts
Deplo Deploy
y

17. DAC Exports
Option to export both schema and data to a single file
• Exports logins, users, tables, columns, constraints, indexes, views,
stored procedures, functions and triggers
• First added in DAC v2 Feature Pack CTP
.bacpac files
• Uses JSON format for data
• Much easier than using (and configuring) bcp
• Avoids issues with code pages and precision
Not intended as a backup mechanism
• No transaction log or history
• Not transactionally consistent (where concurrent access is
occurring)
DACImportExportCLI.exe –s localhost-d RetailDB -f
C:EXPORTRetailDB.bacpac
-x -e

18. DAC Import
Imports schema and data
• Registers Data-Tier Application
Greatly simplifies migrations
• SQL Server -> SQL Azure
DACImportExportCLI.exe –s sdf23sdf.database.windows.net
-d RetailDB
-f C:EXPORTRetailDB.bacpac
-i
-u Username
-p Password

19. SQL Azure Integration
BACPAC can also be used in SQL Azure portal
• Databases export .bacpac to Windows Azure
storage
• Create one or more databases based on
importing .bacpac from storage
Extract/Deploy Data-Tier Applications
to/from local filesystem
• Use SSMS directly connected to SQL Azure

20. Call To Action!
Consider using DAC Fx on your next project
• Focus on the data model, not on the schema
changes
Simplify your application deployment
• Move on from error-prone scripts
• Distribute .dacpac or .bacpac files with your
application