Tips & Troubleshooting — SQL Server Compare

Command Line and Reports

• Run DBLenseCompare.exe compare --help for the full option list. compare, --compare, or --cli starts command-line mode and skips the main window
• The report format is the --report extension: .html, .xlsx, .xml, .pdf, or .csv
• Data compare from the command line uses row counts unless you pass --depth hash or --depth full
• --config-scope instance does not need database names. database does
• Scripts Folder writes files for you to commit. Compare does not run git, push, or sign in to a host
• Open the app once on a build machine before a pipeline run, so a trial or license is already saved

Current Limitations

• A modified table scripts as ALTER TABLE for added and changed columns. Dropping a column stays a comment so it is not applied by accident. Modules get CREATE or ALTER
• Security principals, permissions, synonyms, sequences, CLR, partition schemes, and filegroups are not compared yet
• Data compare does not remap differently named tables; pairs must share schema.table
• Scripts are generated for review — Compare does not execute them against the target automatically

System Requirements