Skill map

Relational design

Understands schemas, normalization, constraints, and data integrity. As Database Administrator needs it.

Careers that require it

Concrete operational procedures from the courses on this page.

How to ship a breaking schema change with zero downtime using expand and contract
Making a backward-incompatible column, table, or store change safe to ship while old and new application code run at once, by staging it across several releases that each stay compatible with the one before.
Schema Migration and Change Management
How to recover from a failed or partially applied migration
What to do when a migration run fails partway, times out, or succeeds without being recorded and the schema, data, and migration history no longer agree: re-establishing the true state and moving forward without editing an applied migration.
Schema Migration and Change Management
How to run an online schema change without long locks
Altering a large, busy table without the maintenance window a plain ALTER would need, covering when the database engine can do the change natively and when a copy-and-swap tool is the safer route.
Schema Migration and Change Management