Red Gate - SQL Compare

Owned by Phatchakorn Sirabenjaphakorn
Last updated: May 20, 2020
12 min read

These pages cover SQL Compare 12, which is not the latest version. Help for other versions is also available.

1. System Requirements

1.1 Supported Platforms :

  • Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2012, Windows 7, Windows 8, or Windows 10

  • Microsoft .NET Framework 4.0 or later

  • Supported SQL Server versions::
    - SQL Server 2016
    - SQL Server 2014
    - SQL Server 2012
    - SQL Server 2008 R2
    - SQL Server 2008
    - SQL Server 2005
    - Microsoft Azure SQL Database
    - Amazon RDS for SQL Server

1.2 Around firewalls

If you aren’t receiving email updates from Redgate for licensing and authentication, this can sometimes be caused by the configuration of your email servers.

Whitelisting can help our emails get around firewalls and third-party tools designed to filter out emails. We recommend that you use the DNS names instead of the IPs as we don't guarantee to keep them constant.

The exact steps to follow will depend on your email server configuration and any additional spam protection software your organisation has in place, but these are the details your IT team will need to whitelist our emails:

The full list of endpoints relating to licensing:

The locally (to you) hosted endpoints for the Redgate Client service are ports 22221 - 22223 by default (e.g. 127.0.0.1:22221)

1.3 Permissions required :

SQL Server version

Recommended permissions

Minimum permissions  

Permissions if you want to compare
encrypted objects

SQL Server version

Recommended permissions

Minimum permissions  

Permissions if you want to compare
encrypted objects

SQL Server 2008 and later

db_owner role

SELECT for the system view sys.sql_expression_dependencies
(without this permission, comparing databases can be very slow)

VIEW DEFINITION permission

sysadmin role

VIEW SERVER STATE permission

SQL Server 2005

db_owner role

VIEW DEFINITION permission

sysadmin role

Deploying:

For deployments, we recommend using the db_owner role. However, it's possible to deploy with just the permissions to make the changes listed in the Summary tab (on the Review page of the deployment wizard).

Exactly which permissions you need depends on the objects in your databases, and what you're deploying.

You can't deploy objects that are encrypted, if they're encrypted in the source.

Permissions issues:

If you don't have the right permissions:

  • Some objects may be missing from the comparison results.
    For example, User Defined Types don't appear in the comparison results if you don't have permission to view the schema they belong to.

  • Deployments and deployment scripts may fail or have unexpected results.
    If a deployment fails, SQL Compare attempts to roll back the changes, using transactions. However, in some circumstances, rolling back isn't possible. 

2. Installation

There are several ways to find the installers you need for your Redgate tools:

  1. Finding Installers

  • Download product from the website.

  • Log in to the customer portal : access the details of your Redgate licenses by logging into your Redgate account on our website.
    The first view you see in the My Products tab shows a summary of all the licenses associated with your account and you can download the latest versions of your tools from here.

2. Run the installer and follow the instructions.
3. The product is listed on the Start menu under Redgate.

3. Licensing

You can use manual activation to activate products when your computer doesn't have an internet connection or your internet connection does not allow SOAP requests. You'll need access to another computer with an internet connection.

3.1 Manual activation

To activate manually:

  1. Click Activate manually.

  2. The Manual activation page is shown.

  3. Under Step 1, copy all of the activation request, and leave this dialog box open (if you close it you may have to start again).

  4. On a computer with an internet connection, go to http://www.red-gate.com/activate and under  Step 1, paste the activation request into the box.

  5. Click Get Activation Response.

  6. Under Step 2, copy the activation response.

  7. Alternatively you can save the activation response to a .txt file.

  8. Back on the computer where you're activating your Redgate product, under Step 2, paste the activation response.

  9. Click Finish.

  10. The Activation successful page is shown.

  11. You can now continue to use your product

You can use manual activation when an error is shown and the Activate Manually button is available.

4. Managing Licenses-User

5. Managing Licenses -Admin&Owner

Support Chanel:

For product-related issues : Submit a Request

For any security issues : Please report them via this page.