Database Administrators Stack Exchange
Database Administrators Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [documentation]

49 questions
241
votes
18 answers

How do you document your databases?

I find that most of my clients are not documenting their databases at all and I find that pretty scary. To introduce some better practice, I would like to know what tools/process people are using. How do you document your database? (SQL-Server)…
user316
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1 answer

Is this an error in SQL Server's documentation for ROLLBACK?

This is the SQL Server's document talking about the ROLLBACK statement. On that page it states that the syntax of it is as follows: ROLLBACK { TRAN | TRANSACTION } [ transaction_name | @tran_name_variable | savepoint_name |…
Just a learner
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Documenting a giant web of inter-related stored procedures in an MS SQL database: What tool or format?

I hope this is a question with a shorter answer than "Read a 1000 page book", but then, if that's the real situation, then hit me with it. I am not a real DBA, I'm a software developer who is realizing we need a DBA, and yet the shop I work in has…
Warren P
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4 answers

Where to start to understand a unknown database

So, the title sums it up. I've got a SQL Server database with 28 tables and 86 stored procedures that must be reverse engineered. I'm pretty sure that some tables are never used and that not all procs are used as well. The biggest problem is that…
Human_AfterAll
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10
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4 answers

How to tackle a large undocumented database

I recently got hired as the only IT Guy in a certain Company X and I am tasked to fix their applications, and in my opinion, the best way to start is by understanding the database. Their current database is a MySQL database with 186 tables(note that…
maru
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9
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6 answers

Best way to document database mappings for migrations

I'm working on a project that includes mapping database elements for a migration and I wanted to know what tools others were using to do this? Excel is a very flexible way to document simple mappings but I was wondering if anybody had a specific…
eageranalyst
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2 answers

Why do we have undocumented and unsupported functions in SQL Server?

After reading an article, dated 2012, about the undocumented functions fn_dblog and fn_dump_dblog I was wondering why they are still undocumented and unsupported if they have been around for a long time and are quite useful. Same with this…
Ronaldo
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4 answers

How to document Oracle database?

I'm new to Oracle databases. I have used to SQL Server and the description fields (MS_Description) for tables and columns for documentation purposes. Is there an equivalent for Oracle? What is the best practice for documenting Oracle database?
jrara
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2 answers

Where can I find a syntax reference for Oracle SQL Developer's "Generate DB Doc" function?

Oracle SQL Developer (I'm using v3.2) has a feature called "DB Doc", which generates documentation for database objects. I mostly want to use it to generate documentation for my stored procedures, functions, packages and types. However, I can't find…
Allan Lewis
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6
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2 answers

default permissible datatype conversion matrix

Today I wanted to define a uuid of value 00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000. Being a SQL Server man, I'd usually... select cast(0x0 as uniqueidentifier); ...but I'm in postgres world now so I whipped out a sensible... select cast('\x00'::bytea as…
Peter Vandivier
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2 answers

Is index_type ignored on MySQL primary keys in create table?

I have seen a create table whose primary key had an identifier where it should have an index_type, something like that: create table a (foo INTEGER, PRIMARY KEY foo_id (foo)); The thing is that according to documentation it shouldn't be allowed, as…
Jaime Soriano
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1 answer

Writing a database analysis document

I've been tasked with writing an analysis of a database that is currently used on a small scale. The intent of the document is to show to the business (as well as technically) that the database can scale to support other business divisions. I've…
Kermit
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2 answers

SQL Server DR Plan - Test Documentation

I have been tasked with creating a document for the testing of our DR/BC Plan for our SQL Servers. We are using DB Mirroring (tier-1) and transaction log shipping (tier-2) and for tier-3 databases we will rely on nightly backups to restore too…
Lima
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Quickly edit MS_Description in SSMS

We document our database by storing descriptions for tables, columns, stored procedures etc. in the MS_Description extended property. It's easy enough to handle by scripting, but what I miss is some sort of a right-click command like "Document" on…
Yuri Makassiouk
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Conversions between any data type and the binary data types are not guaranteed to be the same between versions of SQL Server

I just found that on the SQL Server 2012 MSDN documentation for binary and varbinary types, they mention the following at the end of the article: Conversions between any data type and the binary data types are not guaranteed to be the same between…
ConstantineK
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