~ overflow ~

One might say that mssql is more powerfull and versatile than the other free choices around, this person should be slapped in the face repeated times.

MS SQL is the most awful and horrible SQL server ever.

Moving data to a server to another turns into a hell specially when you use the official microsoft tools to do that. Somehow, microsoft managed to put their legacy bugs on this product as well. The default `copy database` tool from SQL Management Studio 2008 comes factory broken. You can’t use it due some unknown mistake. The more i searched about the `Object reference not set to an instance of an object` issue the more crap i found about it. This is also a C# error message, making it harder to find on google, although many people discussed about this specific sql issue, nobody apparently found an fix it.

There’s some patches at microsoft site, but none of them worked.

So, I was tired of SQL Management studio when i found a tool to export/import sql databases, also from microsoft. Despite the timeouts, it worked right…. until, after 3 hours i found out that it didn’t copied the identity columns, which i specificly checked to copy at the program.

Back at Manager, i happly found that you can’t add identity columns without dropping the table and loosing all the data.

So, none of microsoft tools to manage microsoft sql server were able to do a simple database copy, what could be done with a single command line at mysql turns into a hell spiral because of microsoft great tools.

I was tired of it then i decided to look for a third party tool, and i found out MS SQL Maestro, which surprisingly only had a little bug on connection passwords, with this program i was able to do a script of the database, with the identity columns included, and now, at 4am i’m inserting it back on the new database, just hope i don’t fall into another happy error, since client will want his database working at 8am :)

Just easy as that.