Microsoft have just released a new service update for the SQL Azure Data Sync Service. Most notable of this release is the ability to update the Dataset definition for a Sync Group. You can now add/remove a table/column from a Dataset with some limitations in that you cannot change a column’s data type, add/edit/remove a filter or remove a column that is used as a filter. If you are synchronizing on-premise databases, updating a sync group dataset requires that you download the latest SQL Azure Data Sync Agent.
Download link: SQL Azure Data Sync Agent Preview
Release Notes: New in this Release
April 2, 2012 – Service Update
- Ability to update a deployed sync group.
You can now dynamically update a sync group. See the topic Edit a Sync Group for details.- Added information in the portal that helps you more easily manage your sync groups.
- The client agent version is shown with a recommendation to upgrade if your client agent is not the latest, a warning if support for your agent version expires soon and an error if your agent is no longer supported.
- A warning for sync groups that are out-of-date due to changes failing to apply for 60 or more days.
- Fixed issues that affected ORM (Object Relational Model) frameworks such as Entity Framework and NHibernate working with Data Sync.
- Improved error and status messages.
Supported changes to a sync group
Data Sync allows the following changes to a sync group:
- Add a column to the dataset
- Add a table to the dataset
- Remove a column from the dataset
- Remove a table from to the dataset
- Change a column’s width
Documentation for Editing a Sync Group: Edit a Sync Group
Sync Group Update Limitations
The following changes to a database schema cannot be applied to a sync group. If you need to incorporate any of these changes to your sync group you need to delete and re-create the sync group.
- Change a column’s data type.
- Add, remove or modify a column’s filter.
- Remove a column that has a filter
Warning
Data Sync prevents you from removing a column from a sync group if the column belongs to a filter that is defined in that sync group.
When you edit a sync group Data Sync does not detect filters defined in other sync groups. You are responsible for not removing a column from a sync group if the column belongs to a filter that is defined in another sync group or another subscription. Doing so may cause sync errors when inserting data into a table that contains the filtered column.
JuneT's idle thoughts 