What are DACPACs and how do I use them?
I had someone ask me about DACPACs recently. DACPAC technology had fallen off of my radar after I had seen demos of the feature at a SQL Saturday many years ago. In short, a DACPAC is a file that contains definitions for the objects of a database. This file can be used to create new databases or update old databases to a new version. For the most part, existing data in the updated database should be preserved. DACPAC technology is intended to replace the bundles of .SQL scripts and the giant "Hail, Mary" scripts that are often used to update databases. At the time of that SQL Saturday demo, which was probably in the SQL Server 2008 timeframe, DACPAC technology was new and there were a lot of gotchas. IIRC, it was presented as a way to create databases in SQ:L Azure. A few weeks ago, I noticed that SSDT was creating DACPAC files. I've long been a user of the database comparison tool provided by SSDT and other "Data Dude" descendants, but I didn't giv...