Managing Multiple Schemas with Liquibase

Content updated September 2025

Key Takeaways

• Liquibase supports deployments to single or multiple schemas/databases.
  
• Teams must prefix objects with schema/database names in SQL scripts.
  
• Proper Git repository structure is critical to ensure changelogs apply in the right order.
  
• For single-team, multi-schema projects, changes can be organized in dedicated directories.
  
• For multi-team, shared schema projects, a dedicated SQL repository is recommended.
  
• Liquibase best practices and sample pipelines provide guidance for both Oracle and SQL Server scenarios.

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Liquibase offers flexibility whether deploying changes to a single schema or multiple schemas. Depending on the database platform, there could even be a use case for deploying changes to multiple databases. An extension of this use case is that multiple schemas - or multiple databases - are shared between multiple teams, that is, multiple teams make changes to the same schemas or databases.

Whether teams are deploying to multiple dedicated schemas/databases - or multiple shared schemas/databases - it is important to pay attention to a few essential items:

• How do SQL script authors write their scripts when their scripts are deploying to multiple schemas - or databases? This typically requires prefixing all objects with the schema name - or the database name.
• Structuring your Git repository for multiple schemas - or databases - so that the Liquibase changelog file can apply the proper deployment recipe and in the correct order.
• When a single team deploys to multiple schemas - or databases - they can structure their application repository by dedicating a directory for database changes.

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• When schemas – or databases – are shared across multiple teams, then it is not possible to use each team’s own application repository. This requires setting up a dedicated SQL repository for shared schemas/databases.

We have published best practices for how Liquibase can be used to handle these use cases. These also provide sample changelogs as well as a sample pipeline code, with Liquibase CLI commands, for deploying changes to multiple schemas - or databases.

• Multiple Teams Deploying to the Same Database (Oracle)
• Multiple Teams Deploying to the Same Database (SQL Server)

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Frequently Asked Questions

Q1: Can Liquibase deploy to multiple schemas?
Yes. Liquibase supports deploying changes to one or more schemas or even multiple databases.

Q2: How should SQL scripts be written for multiple schemas?
Always prefix objects with the schema or database name to ensure accuracy during deployment.

Q3: How do I organize my Git repository for multiple schemas?
Structure your repository so changelogs are stored in schema-specific directories or in a dedicated SQL repository for shared environments.

Q4: What if multiple teams work on the same database?
Use a centralized, dedicated SQL repository that all teams contribute to, ensuring consistency and avoiding conflicts.

Q5: Are there Liquibase resources for multi-schema deployments?
Yes. Liquibase provides best practices, sample changelogs, and pipeline code for both Oracle and SQL Server use cases.

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