Best way to create a default Database setup via an .aspx page?

Question

We are going to be selling a service that will be hosted by us, and each client we host will have their own database, but there will be one centralized website. I currently have a blank database with the few things that a new client will need. What is the best way to copy this database so I can setup another client? I want to be able to do this from an .aspx page. Thanks in advance!

Update: By .aspx page, I just meant that I need to be able to kick off the process from an .aspx page.

Update2: We're running SQL Server 2008.

Update 3: Referencing Cade Roux's answer... Thanks for a great answer, but... What is the reason for merging all of the databases into one, and then distinguishing clients based on an identifier in each table? Wouldn't this greatly complicate the architecture of the entire product? I would need to add these Client ID columns to practically every table, and the DAL would need to know which client data its looking for. With the current setup I have, I just switch out the connection string in the DAL, depending on which user is accessing the site. That way, after the connection string is set, I never need to worry about finding client specific data! How do these approaches compare (and should I add this as a separate question?

Answer 1

Depending on what database you're using, there are several approaches. The simplest is to ask your database software to generate SQL code for creating the database and include that with your software. Another would be to just script out in C#/VB the steps needed to recreate your empty database.

Why the need for .aspx page?

Answer 2

You don't say what db version you're using but in SQL2005-2008, you have the ability to "script database as" and then "create to" and have it port the sql to a query window. You could then work with that to create a stored procedure that can be called from your .aspx page.

Answer 3

You have a few different options:

You can detach your empty database, then when a user signs up, copy that database and mount it under a unique name for them and map it to their account in your master database, say.

You can create a database from scratch using scripts and populate any base data either from an online template database or scripting the base data and map it to their account in your master database.

You should seriously consider going to a multi-tenant architecture where all users are in the same database (with most tables having CustomerID columns to segregate the data) if you are going to have more than a few dozen customers.

Regarding your notes about option 3 - it depends on your application. Multi-tenant can be difficult to retrofit. On the other hand, managing and upgrading hundreds of individual customer databases can be difficult in the long haul.

There are previous Stack Overflow questions regarding this:

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/13348

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/20321

I think I'll see about re-tagging them with multi-tenant-db or something. Anyhow, I think that this comes up as a consideration secondary to your answer about a particular tactic does show the importance of including details about your overall goals in strategy in every question on StackOverflow.

Answer 4

SQL Server has a system database called 'model'. Any database objects (tables, views, stored procedures) that exist in the model are added to any new database created.

You could create your 'client database' schema as model, and any new database would have all the same tables...

But, if you need to change your database schema later, your best option is to write change scripts which are part of your code-behind file. Since changes to the 'model' database are not propagated to existing databases, the application needs to detect and upgrade the database schema as necessary.

Disadvantage to this approach: If you want a database which isn't a 'client database' then you would need to create the database, and then delete the 'client database' tables.