August 4, 2011 at 11:51 am
I was put in charge of an old sql 2005 database that no one knows much about. I can't even find anyone that knows the app well that the database supports!
I've reversed engineered the database (SSMS diagrammer-- yecch), am studying the tables names, relationships, and looking at the data in the tables, trying to figure out what is going on.
If you had the same task, how would you proceed to understand\analyze this database? (Helpful tool suggestions always appreciated.)
TIA,
Barkingdog
August 4, 2011 at 11:58 am
August 4, 2011 at 12:29 pm
Running the Data Profiling Task in SSIS against a table in the db can be quite helpful.
August 4, 2011 at 4:33 pm
I find the following script to be very helpful when making changes to a database I am unfamiliar with. Let's say you have a table or procedure that needs to be changed and you don't know what other consequences could happen as a result (a report procedure, import process, etc could be also be affected). This will search through all of the text data in the database objects (procedures, triggers) to find the string you specify.
SELECT so.Name
FROM sysobjects so
JOIN syscomments sc
ON sc.id = so.id
WHERE sc.text like '%%'
If you are making a change to a table called inventory_area, you could do a system check to see what other procedures are using it.
SELECT so.Name
FROM sysobjects so
JOIN syscomments sc
ON sc.id = so.id
WHERE sc.text like '%inventory_area%'
Hope that helps some!
Jason
Webmaster at SQL Optimizations School
August 7, 2011 at 2:13 pm
Good ideas from everyone. Thanks.
Barkingdog
August 7, 2011 at 3:01 pm
I can't even find anyone that knows the app well that the database supports!
I'd back it up, take it offline, and see who calls for it before I spent too much time on it.
--Jeff Moden
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