Specops Database Installer

The Database Installer is a tool used to install and update the Specops database that is shared between several of the Specops products.

Database versioning

Several of the Specops products share the same database model. At the time of writing, Specops Inventory, Specops Deploy and Specops Command all share this same database, by default called Specops3. The Database Installer is used to handle the versioning of the database. This tool can, incrementaly, update different released versions of the Specops3 database to the latest version. This means that whenever we release a new version of any of the Specops products, that use the database, all patches and additions to the database, for all products, are applied. This is performed from the Setup Assistant by using the Database Installer.

Database Installer stand-alone application

In addition to being used from within the Setup Assistants, the Database Installer can also be run as a stand-alone application. Currently the Database Installer is not shipped as a stand-alone application with any of the Specops products. However the application can be obtained by contacting the Specops Support. When running the Database Installer as a stand-alone the following functions are available: Checking database version, Updating the database, running custom scripts. To get started, a connection to the correct database must first made.

Connecting to the database

Before connecting to the database, make sure you are running with a user account that has permissions to read from the database. If you are to update the database or run a custom script you will need to have full permissions to the database.

Type the name of the database server and click connect to establish the connection to the database. Note that if you are running the Database Installer on the actual database server, you can type a period as the database server name to connect to the local server.

Checking database version

When a connection has been made to the database the current version of the database will be displayed. You will also be informed if the Database Installer can update this version to a newer version.

Updating the database

Clicking the Update database button will start a full update of the database. Note that such an update will remove all objects that can be recreated without losing any data. That is; views, triggers and stored procedures will be removed and recreated. Tables will not be removed since they may contain data that of course must be preserved. So, unless any custom changes has been made to the database, updating it will not discard any data.

Running custom scripts

In addition to updating the database, the Database Installer can also be used to run custom SQL scripts. This can for example be custom fixes supplied by the Specops Support. Note that if you run custom scripts to modify the database you may need to reapply these changes if you perform a Database update at a later time.

Page last modified on November 18, 2008, at 10:05 AM