What you'll learn

Deploying a .NET application is easy; deploying the database is where releases can go wrong. Schema changes can lock production tables, break the running application mid-rollout, or leave data in a state no rollback can recover from. In this course, .NET Deployment and Relational Database Versioning, you'll gain the ability to evolve a SQL Server schema alongside a .NET application with zero downtime and no data loss. First, you'll explore how to treat the database schema as versioned code, organizing migrations into bundles, writing idempotent scripts that survive partial failures, and abandoning the "undo button" mindset in favor of roll-forward recovery. Next, you'll discover the expand-contract pattern and how to configure Entity Framework Core to tolerate safe schema drift, so your application keeps running while the database shape changes underneath it. Finally, you'll learn how to mitigate locking risks during online migrations and move heavy data backfills out of the deployment pipeline into batched background processes that won't blow up your transaction log. When you're finished with this course, you'll have the skills and knowledge of zero-downtime database deployment needed to ship schema changes to production during business hours with confidence.