# Using rails for database migrations/installs - even if rails doesn't actually use that database

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/using-rails-for-database-migrations-installs-even-if-rails-doesnt-actually-use-that-database/189608>\
**Category:** Rails\
**Created:** [June 3, 2010, 10:04pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/using-rails-for-database-migrations-installs-even-if-rails-doesnt-actually-use-that-database/189608 "2010-06-03T22:04:58Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![chewmanfoo](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/c37758/32.png) [@chewmanfoo](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/chewmanfoo)\
**Post date:** [June 3, 2010, 10:04pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/using-rails-for-database-migrations-installs-even-if-rails-doesnt-actually-use-that-database/189608/1 "2010-06-03T22:04:58Z")

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Guys,

I think rails migrations are the bomb.

My company deploys a rails web server and application server (for web  
services), as well as a stack of linux servers containing applications  
and databases. the rails app talks to a MySQL database which supports  
it, and rails migrations (rake db:create etc.) is used to deploy the  
database server and seed it at install. But the other mysql databases  
are deployed with all sorts of horrible contortions (scp the schema  
file from a repository to the target mysql server, then mysql -u root -  
p \< schema.sql etc. etc.) It’s fraught with errors and requires human  
action which leads to implementation issues.

Can rails be used to deploy the schema for these other mysql servers  
in the stack, even if the rails application itself doesn’t touch the  
other databases? Would rails be able to build mysql databases of  
various engines (Innodb here, MyISAM there) etc.?

Thanks in advance,