Liquibase Pro (legacy)

My main use case for Liquibase  is database-as-code, which we use for creating table schemas, maintaining migrations, and ensuring that in production, if rollbacks happen, then it's more controlled than running raw SQL.

I can give you a quick specific example of how I've used Liquibase  for migration. Although we have not used it for rollbacks until now, we do use it for managing our scripts during migration.

Liquibase is a database-as-code provider, and that is pretty much how we use it.

The best features Liquibase offers include CI/CD integration, which we really appreciate because we didn't have a lot of issues integrating it into our existing CI pipelines, and the changeset and changelog, which are the source of truth that effectively tell us how the database changes are taking effect.

The CI/CD integration helped my workflow by improving visibility with the changelog and changeset. For the CI part, Maven and Gradle builds are already available, so we just use the Maven plugin and it was pretty straightforward.

There is something called Liquibase Validate as well, which helps with pre-deployment checks. We use the update SQL command for dry-run approvals.

Liquibase has positively impacted my organization by providing a way to manage database migrations instead of maintaining raw SQL, which comes with the issue of not being able to track certain schema updates or new table creations. With Liquibase, you have that history through the changelog and changeset tables, which maintain that history of changes.

Liquibase can be improved by addressing the issue that changelog files could conflict with Git  if they're not modularized properly. While we create one file per feature, rollbacks are not magical and require significant consideration, and large diff operations can also be very slow, affecting performance.

We only use MySQL  for now, so there's nothing related to any exotic database features, and we're not consuming anything on that side either.

I have been working in my current field for about two years.

Private Cloud

Amazon Web Services  (AWS )

What do you like best about the product?

It helps to manage the database changes and when the time for rollback comes, it automatically reverses the changes

What do you dislike about the product?

The format in which the changeset is required to be written can sometimes be too tedious

There are also scenarios where scripts can be dependent on each other, in that case defining dependencies is quite complex

What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?

For each release developers used to sit and create a consolidated script file, which was a time consuming activity moreover when there was a need of roll back the code, tons of efforts were required to be taken to roll back the database

To solve this we started using the Liquibase, we have setup a pipeline with the help of which it becomes very easy to maintain the versions

People automate code-based technologies, but there can be a lack of automation for databases. This tool is used for database automation in DevOps.

It can be integrated with multiple databases like MySQL, MSSQL, and PostgreSQL. The biggest benefit is automating database scripts and manually backing up the database.

It has a rollback capability, but it has not impacted our operations. It's pretty normal. 

It has been improved a lot in terms of automation, but there is still room for improvement.

There is a lot of improvement to be made in terms of automation documentation. This tool is pretty much new for everyone. 

Compared to Jenkins, a CI tool where you integrate your code and run it for quality checks, which has alternative tools like TeamCity, Liquibase is one of the biggest tools for database automation. 

There is documentation available on the website, but it should be improved.

I have been using it for one and a half years.

It is a stable product. 

It is scalable and performs the same if I add more users. Currently, we have around 650 to 850 members.

We are a service-based company working for a large client in the banking sector, so we didn't get a chance to talk with the Liquibase support team.

For the very first time, the initial setup was a medium complex. One thing we faced issues with is that Liquibase does not show the exact error, which added to the complexity.

Suppose it fails with an error. It won't display the exact error on the CI side. For example, if you integrate Liquibase with Jenkins and your database scripts fail due to syntax errors, it won't show the exact error. It's not user-friendly in that aspect.

It will be useful for teams to automate and reduce manual work. It's not only for one specific team; it's across the team.

We saw tangible benefits from using Liquibase in terms of costs and resource savings. 

We reduced our manual intervention by not having to reach out to multiple teams. For example, when executing scripts, we had to reach out to the database team every time we developed a new script to deploy it. 

By using Liquibase, we write the script and compile it. If the build succeeds, we go back to our deployment tool and update our Active Directory so that it will be deployed into the desired environment. This reduces a lot of manual intervention.

The pricing is fair. 

I would recommend using it. To learn Liquibase, one should have some database knowledge. If the person is from a DBA background, they would be able to learn quickly. But if they are from an application or infrastructure role, it's medium complex.

Before getting started, you should thoroughly go through the documentation and follow the latest changes deployed by the Liquibase product team. 

Basically, when using the product, you should be able to understand it and stay updated on the latest releases.

Overall, I would rate the product a nine out of ten. Organizations should have this kind of tool to reduce manual intervention. The one point they could improve on is documentation, which they haven't clarified, and they need to work on that a lot.

Public Cloud

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

What do you like best about the product?

Easy to get started and run from the command line. The compatibility with databases from H2, MySQL to Oracle is a plus. Also, top notch documentation! The Liquibase University sets it apart from the rest.

What do you dislike about the product?

A learning curve is experienced to grasp the concepts and apply them in real-world scenario. However, this is circumvented by the self-paced learning and well-detailed docs.

What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?

Liquibase comes in handy in database migration for Oracle Enterprise . Eradicates errors by verifying the raw SQL before running update command. Logs generated are helpful in troubleshooting.