Script entire database SQL-Server

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Is there a way I can get a scripting of all tables, procs, and other objects from a database? I know there’s an option to script the database but it only gave me some sort of top level script, certainly not a script to create all tables, procs, udfs, .etc.

5 Answers

  1. rajesh on Mar 05, 2013

    We ended up using a combination of SSMS script generation to extract schema and data, and then use our own database tool which allows keyword parsing and token based replacement in scripts. It also ensures scripts are only applied once.

    Why?

    • We need to support installations on SQL Server 2000, 2005 and 2008, and there are changes to data types between versions, e.g. 2005+ have nvarchar(max), whereas 2000 only supports ntext. So our scripts use a token and based upon the db choice replaces with the correct type.
    • Execution of some scripts requires a wait period after execution, e.g. We found if you didn’t wait a few seconds after creating a new databases via a script, the SQL Server might fail sometimes (because it hasn’t had time to create the db files) when it went on to create tables, etc.
    • We wanted to maintain a history of what scripts were executed and when.
    • We wanted to allow our Wix MSI installer to specify connection string and credentials, and needed some way to pass these into the scripts, so once again, using tokens and some conditional logic.

    Example script (edited for brevity)

    -- Sleep: 5 
-- Sleep after creating database to allow file system to create db files
CREATE DATABASE [$Database$]
GO

EXEC sp_dbcmptlevel [$Database$], $CompatabilityLevel$
GO

USE [$Database$]
GO

IF '1'!='$IntegratedSecurity$'
BEGIN
	CREATE LOGIN [$Login$] WITH PASSWORD=N'$Password$', DEFAULT_DATABASE=[$Database$]
	CREATE USER [$User$] FOR LOGIN [$Login$]
	EXEC sp_addrolemember N'db_owner', N'$User$'
END
GO

  2. cheeseballlumpy82 on Mar 05, 2013

    From Management Studio
    Right-click on your database.
    Tasks -> Generate Scripts.

    That should do it.

  3. harry on Mar 05, 2013

    I wrote a utility for this task, SMOscript.

    Script generation is performed by the SMO library, and supports the new object types in SQL 2005 and 2008.

  4. xequnsruuh on Mar 05, 2013

    If you need to do it programmatically, you can use the SQL DMO library (OLE) against SQL Server 2000, but more likely you may wish to use the SQL SMO library (native .NET libraries) against SQL Server 2005 and later.

    Both these libraries are integral to the SQL Server administrative tools install.

    This is in the case that generating the full database script from SQL Server Management Studio is insufficient.

  5. harry on Mar 05, 2013

    I recommend looking at RedGate SQL packager. It is not free, but has been useful enough to be worth the price.