DbUp vs FluentMigrator: Two Ways to Migrate .NET Databases
DbUp runs plain SQL scripts once and journals them; FluentMigrator describes changes in C#. How each works, where each wins, and how both sit next to EF Core.
Plain SQL scripts run once, in name order, journaled in the SchemaVersions table. SchemaDrawer runs DbUp providers on .NET 10 (dbup-postgresql 7.0 against a throw-away database of the engine you choose and returns an SVG of the schema it produces.
Upload the SQL scripts. DbUp has no command line of its own, so SchemaDrawer runs them through a small DbUp console runner that reads the whole upload, subdirectories included, and applies the scripts in the order of their names.
The sample below is the PetClinic schema written for DbUp, one of the sets SchemaDrawer's own tests draw on every engine:
Scripts/ ├── 0001_create_owners_and_pets.sql ├── 0002_create_vets.sql └── 0003_create_visits.sql
Plain SQL scripts.
A DbUp UpgradeEngine with WithScriptsFromFileSystem, then PerformUpgrade(). The database is a fresh PostgreSQL, MySQL, MariaDB, SQL Server, Oracle or SQLite container in the version you ask for; nothing of yours is touched.
PostgreSQL 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18 MySQL 8.0, 8.4, 9 MariaDB 10.6, 11.4, 11.8, 12 SQL Server 2017, 2019, 2022, 2025 Oracle 21, 23 SQLite
Not offered for DbUp: SQLite. The tool ships no driver for it, so nothing could run.
migrationType=DBUPOwners, pets, types, vets, specialties and visits: the same seven tables every sample set on this site creates. These are the exact files the tests upload.
CREATE TABLE owners
(
id INT NOT NULL,
first_name VARCHAR(50) NOT NULL,
last_name VARCHAR(50) NOT NULL,
address VARCHAR(255),
city VARCHAR(80),
telephone VARCHAR(20),
CONSTRAINT pk_owners PRIMARY KEY (id)
);
CREATE TABLE types
(
id INT NOT NULL,
name VARCHAR(80) NOT NULL,
CONSTRAINT pk_types PRIMARY KEY (id)
);
CREATE TABLE pets
(
id INT NOT NULL,
name VARCHAR(50) NOT NULL,
birth_date DATE,
type_id INT NOT NULL,
owner_id INT NOT NULL,
CONSTRAINT pk_pets PRIMARY KEY (id),
CONSTRAINT fk_pets_types FOREIGN KEY (type_id) REFERENCES types (id),
CONSTRAINT fk_pets_owners FOREIGN KEY (owner_id) REFERENCES owners (id)
);
CREATE TABLE vets
(
id INT NOT NULL,
first_name VARCHAR(50) NOT NULL,
last_name VARCHAR(50) NOT NULL,
CONSTRAINT pk_vets PRIMARY KEY (id)
);
CREATE TABLE specialties
(
id INT NOT NULL,
name VARCHAR(80) NOT NULL,
CONSTRAINT pk_specialties PRIMARY KEY (id)
);
CREATE TABLE vet_specialties
(
vet_id INT NOT NULL,
specialty_id INT NOT NULL,
CONSTRAINT pk_vet_specialties PRIMARY KEY (vet_id, specialty_id),
CONSTRAINT fk_vet_specialties_vets FOREIGN KEY (vet_id) REFERENCES vets (id),
CONSTRAINT fk_vet_specialties_specialties FOREIGN KEY (specialty_id) REFERENCES specialties (id)
);
CREATE TABLE visits
(
id INT NOT NULL,
pet_id INT NOT NULL,
visit_date DATE,
description VARCHAR(255),
CONSTRAINT pk_visits PRIMARY KEY (id),
CONSTRAINT fk_visits_pets FOREIGN KEY (pet_id) REFERENCES pets (id)
);
Every variant of the sample produces these seven tables. This diagram was drawn from the Flyway variant on PostgreSQL 18; on MySQL the types read INT and VARCHAR, on Oracle the names are upper case.
One multipart request queues the drawing; poll the job until it succeeds and download the SVG. Or let the GitHub Action do it and open a pull request with the diagram.
curl -X POST https://schemadrawer.com/api/v1/drawing \
-H "Request-Id: $(uuidgen)" \
-F "userId=5f0c1d2e-3a4b-4c5d-8e6f-7a8b9c0d1e2f" \
-F "migrationType=DBUP" \
-F "databaseType=POSTGRESQL" \
-F "version=18" \
-F "files=@Scripts/0001_create_owners_and_pets.sql" \
-F "files=@Scripts/0002_create_vets.sql" \
-F "files=@Scripts/0003_create_visits.sql"
# {"jobId":"0b6e2f4c-8d1a-4c3e-9f7a-2a5b6c7d8e9f"}
Then poll GET https://schemadrawer.com/api/v1/drawing/{jobId} until status is SUCCESS and fetch diagramUrl. Details in the getting started guide and the API reference.
- uses: schemadrawercom/action@v1
with:
sql-directory: Scripts
output-path: docs/schema-diagram.svg
migration-type: DBUP
database-type: POSTGRESQL
database-version: '18'
github-token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
The action uploads the directory, waits for the diagram and opens a pull request with the SVG. See the action reference.
; rather than a line holding /.schemaversions is left out of the diagram.DbUp runs plain SQL scripts once and journals them; FluentMigrator describes changes in C#. How each works, where each wins, and how both sit next to EF Core.
Editing applied migrations, environment-specific scripts, ORM auto-DDL in production, untested rollbacks: ten habits that break deployments, with a fix for each.
How Diesel manages a schema in Rust: the CLI, timestamped folders with up.sql and down.sql, the versions table, the generated schema.rs and embedded migrations.
Upload the migration directory, get an SVG back. Free while we build it.