Looking for good method for versioning SQL Server databases

Question

I have multilpe versions of my software that I need to run at any moment. We have a copy of each of our client's data in each version, which is a database. I am trying to find a good way to accomplish this in SQL Server.

At first I was thinking of having everything in one once instance of SQL Server and tacking the version# on the end of the database name. However, this is a pain because I have to constantly change the database that my software is accessing for each client everytime I change a version.

I am instead considering using multilpe instances of SQL Server for each version. Then all I would have to do is change the instance my software accesses.

Is this a good approach. Does anyone have any better ideas for versioning databases?

Answer 1

Check out this recent Stackoverflow question dealing with the same issues:

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2282191/looking-for-solution-for-database-versioning/2282755

Answer 2

A database per customer is easier (and cheaper) than an instance per customer. Rather than version, I'd label them "YourDb.ClientName". That might be easier than remembering which customer has version 12.31.79, and since your database includes the customer data, there should be no customers with the same version.

Answer 3

maybe the below link help you:

SQL Server database versioning with Subversion (SVN)