How to: Integrate with Github

This blog is automatically generated by AI-DBA without human revision, please note that errors may occur.

Overview

GitHub is an online platform used for version control and collaboration on software development projects. It allows developers to store, manage, and share their code with other developers. Here is a detailed explanation of what GitHub is and how it works: Version Control: Version control is a way of keeping track of changes made to a codebase over time. It allows developers to keep a history of all the changes made to their code and revert back to previous versions if necessary. GitHub uses a version control system called Git, which is a distributed version control system. This means that every developer has a copy of the codebase on their local machine and can make changes to it independently. Repository: A repository is a collection of files that make up a project. It includes all the code, documentation, and other files necessary to run the project. 

GitHub provides a platform for developers to host their repositories online, making it easy to share their code with others. Collaboration: GitHub provides a platform for collaboration between developers. Developers can work together on the same codebase, share ideas, and suggest improvements. GitHub allows developers to create pull requests, which are requests to merge changes made by one developer into the main codebase. Other developers can review the changes and suggest improvements before the changes are merged into the codebase. Issues: GitHub also provides a platform for issue tracking. Developers can create issues, which are problems or bugs found in the code. 

Other developers can help resolve the issues by proposing solutions or making changes to the code. Community: GitHub has a large and active community of developers who contribute to open-source projects. Open-source projects are projects that are made available to the public, and anyone can contribute to them. GitHub makes it easy for developers to find open-source projects to contribute to and collaborate with others. Overall, GitHub is an essential tool for software developers. It provides a platform for version control, collaboration, and community building, making it easier for developers to work together and share their code with others.

The integration of AI-DBA with GitHub provides several benefits for software developers and data management teams. Here are some of the key advantages of this integration:

  1. Streamlined Collaboration: The integration of AI-DBA with GitHub allows for streamlined collaboration between developers and data management teams. GitHub provides a platform for version control, issue tracking, and collaboration, while AI-DBA provides powerful tools for managing SQL Server instances, monitoring performance, and optimizing database configurations. By integrating these tools, developers and data management teams can work together more efficiently and effectively.
  2. Automated Recommendations: AI-DBA provides automated recommendations for optimizing SQL Server instances. These recommendations can be uploaded directly into the repository and branch on GitHub. This allows developers and data management teams to easily access the recommendations and implement them into their codebase.
  3. Continuous Integration: The integration of AI-DBA with GitHub enables continuous integration, which is the process of automatically building and testing code changes. This process helps ensure that code changes are tested and validated before they are merged into the main codebase. By integrating AI-DBA recommendations into the continuous integration process, developers and data management teams can ensure that their SQL Server instances are optimized and performing at their best.
  4. Improved Visibility: By integrating AI-DBA with GitHub, developers and data management teams can gain improved visibility into the performance of their SQL Server instances. AI-DBA provides powerful monitoring and diagnostic tools that can be integrated with GitHub to provide real-time visibility into the health of SQL Server instances.
  5. Increased Efficiency: The integration of AI-DBA with GitHub can help increase efficiency by automating many of the tasks involved in managing SQL Server instances. This can free up developers and data management teams to focus on other critical tasks, such as developing new features and improving the overall performance of their applications.

Overall, the integration of AI-DBA with GitHub provides several benefits for software developers and data management teams. It enables streamlined collaboration, automated recommendations, continuous integration, improved visibility, and increased efficiency, all of which can help improve the performance and reliability of SQL Server instances.

Gather the Personal Access Token (PAT)

GitHub PAT (Personal Access Token) is a token that provides secure access to your GitHub account and repositories. It is a type of authentication token that can be used instead of a password to access your GitHub account.
The main purpose of a GitHub PAT is to provide secure access to your account and repositories without having to use your password. PATs can be used to access GitHub APIs, command-line interfaces, and other applications that require authentication. They are useful for automating tasks, such as deploying code to production, integrating with other services, and managing repositories.
PATs can be customized to provide different levels of access to your GitHub account and repositories. You can create PATs that only have read access, write access, or full access to your repositories. This allows you to control the level of access that other applications have to your code and data.
PATs are also useful for integrating GitHub with other tools and services. For example, you can use a PAT to authenticate with a Continuous Integration (CI) system, such as Jenkins, to build and test your code automatically.
Overall, GitHub PATs provide a secure and flexible way to manage access to your GitHub account and repositories. They are a key component of GitHub's authentication system and are widely used by developers and organizations to automate tasks and integrate with other services. 

Prerequisites:


Before proceeding, ensure you have the following:

  • Access to a computer or mobile device with an internet connection.
  • A valid Github account with credentials.

To acquire a Personal Access Token (PAT) in GitHub, follow these steps:

  1. Log in to your GitHub account.
  2. Click on your profile picture in the top-right corner of the screen.
  3. Select "Settings" from the drop-down menu.
  4. In the left-hand menu, click on "Developer settings".
  5. Click on "Personal access tokens".
  6. Click on the "Generate new token" button.
  7. Give your token a name and select the scopes that you need (e.g. repo, admin:repo_hook, etc.).
  8. Click on the "Generate token" button.

Your new token will be displayed on the screen. Make sure to copy it and keep it in a safe place, as it will not be displayed again.

Note: It is important to keep your token secure, as it provides access to your GitHub account and repositories. Do not share your token with anyone and do not include it in any public code or scripts.

Configure the Server

To integrate AI-DBA with GitHub, you can follow these steps to set up the necessary information in the Server Configuration:

  1. Open the AI-DBA application and navigate to the Server section.
  2. Click on the Configuration tab.
  3. Locate the General settings and find the Github section.
  4. In the Github section, you will need to provide the necessary information to connect AI-DBA with your GitHub account. Here are the details you need to set:
    a. Repository URL: Enter the URL of your GitHub repository where you want to integrate AI-DBA. 
    b. Personal Access Token: Generate a personal access token from your GitHub account. To do this, go to your GitHub account settings, navigate to Developer Settings, and then click on Personal Access Tokens. Generate a new token with the necessary permissions (e.g., repo access) and copy the token. 
    c. Branch: Specify the branch of your repository that AI-DBA should use for integration.
  5. Once you have entered the required information, click on the Save or Apply button to save the configuration changes. After completing these steps, AI-DBA will be integrated with your GitHub repository. It will be able to perform actions such as pushing code changes, creating branches, and managing pull requests directly from the AI-DBA interface.

Verify the Github's Repository

Once the integration between AI-DBA and GitHub is set up, AI-DBA will export recommendation scripts to your GitHub repository automatically every 15 minutes. These recommendation scripts contain suggestions and optimizations for your database. To verify the export and view the script files, you can browse your GitHub repository. Here's how you can do it:

  1. Open a web browser and go to the GitHub website (github.com).
  2. Sign in to your GitHub account if you haven't already.
  3. Navigate to your repository where you integrated AI-DBA.
  4. Once you are in the repository, you should see a list of files and folders.
  5. Look for the recommendation script files. These files are typically stored in a specific folder or have a specific naming convention set in AI-DBA.
  6. Click on the script file you want to view to open it in the GitHub file viewer.

In the GitHub file viewer, you can review the recommendation script and see the optimizations suggested by AI-DBA. You can also track changes made to the scripts over time as AI-DBA exports updated recommendations every 15 minutes. Remember to regularly check your GitHub repository to stay up to date with the latest recommendation scripts from AI-DBA.

See Also

 Solution Internals
 Data Gateway