Building SQL Server Database Project In Ubuntu

I'm building an ASP.NET Core 2.0 Web API application that is hosted in an Ubuntu environment. So far, I've had great success getting things building and running (for the .NET Core app) in Ubuntu.

For the database, I have a SqlProj included in my solution. The project includes typical things such as tables, SPs, and pre/post deployment scripts. I'm using the following command (on my Windows-based dev machine) to build and deploy this project:

msbuild .\MyProject.DB.sqlproj /t:Build /t:Publish /P:SqlPublishProfilePath="./PublishProfiles/MyProject.DB.publish.xml"

When I take this approach, everything builds and deploys properly; however, since I will be taking advantage of the .NET Core CLI commands + CI/CD that targets an Ubuntu environment, I'd like to do something more like:

dotnet msbuild .\MyProject.DB.sqlproj /t:Build /t:Publish /P:SqlPublishProfilePath="./PublishProfiles/MyProject.DB.publish.xml"

In Windows, I immediately get the error:

error MSB4019: The imported project "C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk\2.1.4\Microsoft\VisualStudio\v11.0\SSDT\Microsoft.Data.Tools.Schema.SqlTasks.targets" was not found. Confirm that the path in the <Import> declaration is correct, and that the file exists on disk.

Basically, what I'm asking is how to successfully build and deploy a SqlProj project in an Ubuntu environment. I've tried Googling, but I have had zero luck thus far. All of the similar issues that I've found were for individuals who were editing their .proj file to target their VS folder's SSDT. All of these individuals were fixing the issue in Windows. This approach will not work in Ubuntu, since the targets file uses Windows registry keys.

EDIT: I'm aware that SSDT is needed in order to perform such a deployment using MSBuild. I've found no evidence that installing/using SSDT is even possible in Ubuntu. If it is not, perhaps there is an alternative solution?

FYI, I'm aware that using a code-first approach with EF Core is possible. I'm attempting to take the raw SP approach (along with leveraging indexes) and keep track of all of my code using SqlProj instead. This will all be stored and CI/CDed from a Git repo.

You can use this NuGet package to deploy without installing SSDT https://www.nuget.org/packages/Microsoft.Data.Tools.Msbuild I don't know if it will run on Ubuntu or integrate at all with the dotnet cli

I can't speak to whether or not this will work on Ubuntu, but we recently got through this on a Windows build machine that does not have SSDT installed, using the NuGet package mentioned above. The breakthrough came from piecing together the details in the article below, specifically that using the SDK with MSBuild needed to have environment variables set in order to work.

https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/ssdt/2016/08/22/part-5-use-your-own-build-and-deployment-agent/

With that added info, we installed the NuGet package in the root of the solution folder and then wrote a build script in PowerShell. The script sets the environment variables first and then calls MSBuild on the SqlProj file with the appropriate output directory. We don't specifically publish at that point, but instead publish the artifact to Octopus Deploy in our workflow which does the actual deployment.

Again, not sure it will help on Ubuntu, but thought the additional detail might be useful.

My 2020 Solution

I would like to revisit this in 2020 with an updated answer to my original question.

I have taken a different approach to building an deploying SQL Server projects. My current approach is to build a pipeline that uses a vs2017-win2016 agent and use this to build a .dacpac. From there, you build a deployment pipeline to deploy the dacpac (from your artifact drop) out to the SQL Server instance.

This approach better accommodates DevOps methodologies and removes the manual process associated with my previous solution.

You can read more about this here:

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/devops/pipelines/apps/aspnet/build-aspnet-dacpac?view=azure-devops

As an alternative, it is possible to achieve this with dotnet cli and sqlpackage as explained here using an MSBuild Sdk.

You basically have a database project. Let's call it "DatabaseProject".

You create a new project which is a .NET standard c# library that you can call "DatabaseProject.Build".

Then you can configure you DatabaseProject.Build.csproj as such:

<Project Sdk="MSBuild.Sdk.SqlProj/1.11.4">
   <PropertyGroup>
       <TargetFramework>netstandard2.0</TargetFramework>
       <Configurations>Debug;Release</Configurations>
   </PropertyGroup>
   <ItemGroup>
       <Content Include="..\DatabaseProject\**\*.sql" />
       <Content Remove="..\DatabaseProject\bin\*.sql" />
       <Content Remove="..\DatabaseProject\**\*.PostDeployment.sql" />
       <PostDeploy Include="..\DatabaseProject\**\*.PostDeployment.sql" />
   </ItemGroup>
</Project>

Be Aware The version used V1.11.4 is the one that supports the current .NET SDK shipped with visual studio at the time of the edit of this post. Check out the github repo to get the latest nuget version for your projet.

Using dotnet build will generate a dacpac that you will be able to use with either dotnet publish or sqlpackage.

You can then publish to you SqlServer instance. If you're like me using a linux runner in your CI, you'll probably need SqlServer authentification method and then run either

sqlpackage /Action:Publish \    
/SourceFile:\"DatabaseProject.Build/bin/Debug/netstandard2.0/DatabaseProject.Build.dacpac\" \
/TargetServerName:MyDatabaseServerName \
/TargetDatabaseName:MyDatabaseName \
/TargetUser:Username\
/TargetPassword:Password

or using a profile generated by visual studio :

sqlpackage /Action:Publish /Profile:\"DatabaseProject/PublishProfile/MyProfile.publish.xml\" /SourceFile:\"DatabaseProject.Build/bin/Debug/netstandard2.0/DatabaseProject.Build.dacpac\"

or

dotnet publish /p:TargetServerName=MyServerName /p:TargetDatabaseName=MyDatabseName /p:TargetUser=<username> /p:TargetPassword=<password>

As mentioned, the easiest way to build DacPac file on a linux agent is done via MSBuild.Sdk.SqlProj Go to your database project directory in parallel to .sqlproj file create a directory like DB.Build under it create DB.Build.csproj copy.pase the content as below

<Project Sdk="MSBuild.Sdk.SqlProj/1.1.0"> <!-- This will pull in the required tools and dependencies to build a .dacpac with .NET Core -->
    <PropertyGroup>
        <TargetFramework>netstandard2.0</TargetFramework>
    </PropertyGroup>
    <ItemGroup>
        <Content Include="..\src\DB\masterdata\**\*.sql" /> <!-- link in the new .csproj to the .sql scripts in your existing database project -->
    </ItemGroup>
</Project>

After run you will see dacpac file appears under DB.Build/bin/Release/netstandard2.0/DB.Build.dacpac

Here's my build agent output (Ubuntu agent on Azure devops)

Starting: SQL DB build Release
==============================================================================
Task         : .NET Core
Description  : Build, test, package, or publish a dotnet application, or run a custom dotnet command
Version      : 2.187.0
Author       : Microsoft Corporation
Help         : https://docs.microsoft.com/azure/devops/pipelines/tasks/build/dotnet-core-cli
==============================================================================
Info: .NET Core SDK/runtime 2.2 and 3.0 are now End of Life(EOL) and have been removed from all hosted agents. If you're using these SDK/runtimes on hosted agents, kindly upgrade to newer versions which are not EOL, or else use UseDotNet task to install the required version.
/opt/hostedtoolcache/dotnet/dotnet build /home/vsts/work/1/s/src/RecommenderAPI.DB/RecommenderAPI.DB/RecommenderAPI.DB.Build/RecommenderAPI.DB.Build.csproj -dl:CentralLogger,"/home/vsts/work/_tasks/DotNetCoreCLI_5541a522-603c-47ad-91fc-a4b1d163081b/2.187.0/dotnet-build-helpers/Microsoft.TeamFoundation.DistributedTask.MSBuild.Logger.dll"*ForwardingLogger,"/home/vsts/work/_tasks/DotNetCoreCLI_5541a522-603c-47ad-91fc-a4b1d163081b/2.187.0/dotnet-build-helpers/Microsoft.TeamFoundation.DistributedTask.MSBuild.Logger.dll" --configuration Release /p:DeployOnBuild=true /p:WebPublishMethod=Package /p:PackageAsSingleFile=true /p:SkipInvalidConfigurations=true /p:PackageLocation=/home/vsts/work/1/recommender-service-cicd/DacPac/
Microsoft (R) Build Engine version 16.5.0+d4cbfca49 for .NET Core
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

  Restore completed in 51.72 ms for /home/vsts/work/1/s/src/RecommenderAPI.DB/RecommenderAPI.DB/RecommenderAPI.DB.Build/RecommenderAPI.DB.Build.csproj.
  Using package name RecommenderAPI.DB.Build and version 1.0.0
  Using SQL Server version Sql150
  Deleting existing file /home/vsts/work/1/s/src/RecommenderAPI.DB/RecommenderAPI.DB/RecommenderAPI.DB.Build/obj/Release/netstandard2.0/RecommenderAPI.DB.Build.dacpac
  Writing model to /home/vsts/work/1/s/src/RecommenderAPI.DB/RecommenderAPI.DB/RecommenderAPI.DB.Build/obj/Release/netstandard2.0/RecommenderAPI.DB.Build.dacpac
  RecommenderAPI.DB.Build -> /home/vsts/work/1/s/src/RecommenderAPI.DB/RecommenderAPI.DB/RecommenderAPI.DB.Build/bin/Release/netstandard2.0/RecommenderAPI.DB.Build.dacpac

Build succeeded.
    0 Warning(s)
    0 Error(s)

Time Elapsed 00:00:01.71

Finishing: SQL DB build Release

Note: Make sure to restore you NuGet packages in step prior to build