If you have more then a single MySQL database for your production environment, e.g. a development and test environment, or a MySQL replication topology, ensuring your schema’s are in sync can be task that requires some time if not managed correctly.
There is a tool I do use for MySQL environments called Schema Sync – a MySQL Schema Versioning and Migration Utility . There are many reasons why schema’s get out of sync. Developers may not ensure their changes are reflected in any software to be deployed, and when not tested you could end up with broken functionality. A DBA might try some different index strategies on a slave, but not the master, and never implement or revert.
While some people want the quick and hidden just sync version akin to Rails, I really like this product as it produces proper patch and revert SQL scripts. As a DBA I really want to know what’s going to be applied to my schema, I want to be able to review it before it’s just magically applied. The revert process is also ideal, in time critical situations when you may need to rollback a change, either it’s taking to long to deploy.
This is definitely a tool to use over time, especially if you have multiple developers, DBA’s and more then one MySQL environment that should be the same.