Question

Your team deploys a .NET web application together with its SQL Server database using a multi-stage Azure Pipeline. The database schema is managed with Entity Framework Core migrations. During production releases, the pipeline occasionally fails when the same migration is re-run after a partial deployment, and DBAs require that any schema change be reviewed before it touches the production database. You must redesign the release stage so schema changes are safe to re-run and reviewable before execution. Which approach best meets these requirements?

Accepted Answer

Generate an idempotent SQL migration script with 'dotnet ef migrations script --idempotent', publish it as an artifact, gate the production stage with a manual approval, then execute the script with a SqlAzureDacpacDeployment/Sql task.

Answer

Run 'dotnet ef database update' directly against production in the deploy job, and add a rollback script that drops the database if the job fails.

Answer

Enable EF Core automatic migrations at application startup so the schema updates itself the first time the new app version handles a request in production.

Answer

Package the database as a DACPAC and deploy it with schema-compare set to drop objects not in source, running immediately after the build with no approval.