In general, it depends on what type of testing and what technologies you are using. For performance testing and other testing that requires large data sets, I p

In general, it depends on what type of testing and what technologies you are using. For performance testing and other testing that requires large data sets, I prefer to have a "golden" copy of a database that is simply restored to the testing environment as needed. For smaller integration tests the database is usually seeded dynamically, I've seen it done through fixtures/bootstrapping (Django, Grails, and other frameworks support this) or through SDK calls in custom code (using your own code base to populate the database). Are you also trying to seed your production environment?