Sharepoint - How to sync a SQL database with a SharePoint List?

Business Connectivity Services (BCS) is the way to go...here's a nice 3 part series on setting it up as well as programatically working with it:

http://www.zimmergren.net/archive/2010/01/18/sp-2010-getting-started-with-business-connectivity-services-bcs-in-sharepoint-2010.aspx

Tons of data out there if you want to do additional research...google SharePoint 2010 BCS.

There is no need to sync the SQL table and SharePoint list - instead use Business Connectivity Services (BCS) and create an external list. Read more here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee558778.aspx

In case you do not want to use BCS (I am personally not a fan of BCS) there are some third party alternatives. This component from Layer2 for example is very easy to use but maybe best suited for lists without a feature based content type: http://www.layer2.de/en/products/Pages/SharePoint-Business-Data-List-Connector.aspx

In my opinion BCS has these drawbacks:

• BCS lists crash once in a while after a re-deployment, which requires either to re-activate the external list/content type feature and sometimes even to delete the list instance and re-create it
• Creating and maintaining BDC models in Visual Studio is not straight forward and can be quite time consuming
• InfoPath display and edit forms for external lists cannot be deployed with an WSP solution package (at least we did not find a way to do this)