title: how to safely deploy stage database to live production database in magento
body: <p>Being very new to versioning and source control I'm wondering how some of you have gone about safely updating your dev database changes to production using Magento and what tools help you do it.</p>
  
  <p>I've got a repository setup for my dev changes and a local machine running a dev version of magento, but I don't know the safe (and proper) way to merge my database changes. What if I add some products, add an extension, change some admin settings in my dev environment but want to merge my changes with a live store that is taking orders, adding customers, etc.? I would think that some type of merge would be appropriate, almost like source control for a database but is this even possible?</p>
  
  <p>I'm not sure if it helps or matters but I am using NetBeans and I frequently use Navicat to browse through db tables and such.</p>