Specifications

42 CHAPTER 3 Data-Tier Applications
The Data-Tier Application Life Cycle
There are two common methods for generating a DAC. One is to author and build a DAC
using a SQL Server data-tier application project in Microsoft Visual Studio 2010. In the second
method, you can extract a DAC from an existing database by using the Extract Data-Tier Ap-
plication Wizard in SQL Server Management Studio. Alternatively, a DAC can be generated
with Windows PowerShell commands.
Figure 3-1 illustrates the data-tier application generation and deployment life cycle for
both a new data-tier application project in Visual Studio 2010 and an extracted DAC created
with the Extract Data-Tier Application Wizard in SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS). In
the illustration, the DAC package is deployed to the same instance of SQL Server 2008 R2 in
both methodologies.
.dacpac
Visual Studio
Data-tier
developer
Build
Deploy
SQL Server
.dacpac
Extract
Deploy
Managed instances
SQL Server 2008 R2
Upload collection
data set
DBA
Utility Control Point
SQL Server
Management
Studio
FIGURE 3-1 The data-tier application life cycle