T-SQL Tuesday #152 – A Rant

This month’s T-SQL Tuesday invitation comes from Deborah Melkin. We’re invited to give a good rant about a database topic that we’re passionate about. For the full invite post, click the T-SQL Tuesday image below:

Beware The Quiet Ones

I’m not usually one for ranting. Don’t get me wrong, I have my moments. Everyone does. But I like to be careful about when I pick my battles. People tend to listen more when the quiet one is no longer quiet.

One battle I don’t mind picking is against those that carelessly mess with databases and servers they have no business being on.

That sounds a bit elitist but let me explain.

Access is (hopefully) restricted in production but what about non-prod or dev environments that have a wider variety of users logging in? Users could range from database administrators to developers to tech support, etc. This increases the chances of an accident.

One question no database administrator wants to hear is “nobody was using that database, right?”

As the invitation prompt goes, it might depend on what changes were being made.

You may have been updating data someone needed for validating a fix. The “_OLD” table that you assumed could be dropped may still have been useful to the person who created it. There might be a database covered in cobwebs that should have been dropped years ago but it could also be a database that’s used for some type of reporting every few months.

If you’re experimenting or testing on an database that isn’t specifically yours, make sure you know what’s happening in that database and who/what it is used for. Just because it’s not production doesn’t mean it’s not important to something or someone.

Leave It Better Than You Found It

Clean up after yourself! Don’t leave bad data lingering around. Don’t delete or drop that which is not your own. Be courteous just as you would be anywhere else.

All that to say, speak up and make sure people know what you’re doing so you don’t step on toes and they don’t step on yours. You don’t want to cause someone more work and headaches.

Thanks for reading!