is a generic query for verifying and fixing table possible? - sql

Is it possible to build a generic query that verifies and if needed corrects a whole table schema?
Example:
On my dev machine i have a sql server with some tables. I, and others, make changes to the tables and sometimes misses to notify the others about them. :/
I want to build a query that reads the dev sql tables and creates a query that i can run one another sql server and updates that table there so that they are equal.
I cant drop the table and recreate it unfortunately. I dont want to change any of the data.
If this is to hard with sql syntax is there some tools that can do this for me? The sql tables are almost always on different machines and most likely i cant connect directly to them from the same place. So tha fixing/verifying needs to be done "offline".
Time is not of the essence, it can be a very slow query as long as it works.
update: I want to verify the sql schema and not the content of the table
update2: We are using SQL Server 2008 R2

It is possible, but not easy. This kind of tool is called a Data Dictionary, and you can write one yourself (see advice from the Database Programmer) or you can buy a commercial one, for example RedGate's SQL Compare.

Related

connecting to remote oracle database in SQL

I need to do some data migration between two oracle databases that in different servers. I've thought of some ways to do it like writing a jdbc program but i think the best way is to do it in SQL itself. I can also copy the entire table over to the database I am migrating to but these tables are big and doesnt seem like a "elegant" solution.
Is it possible to open a connection to one DB in SQL developer then connect to the other one using SQL and writing update/insert functions on tables as if they were both in the same connection?
I have read some examples on creating linked tables but none seem to be oracle specific or tell me how to open the external connection by supplying it the server hostname/port/SID/user credentials.
thanks for the help!
If you create a Database Link, you can just select a from different database by querying TABLENAME#dblink.
You can create such a link using the CREATE DATABASE LINK statement.
It depends if its a one time thing or a normal process and if you need to do ETL (Extract, Transform and Load) or not, but ill help you out based on what you explained.
From what i can gather from your explanation, what you attempt to accomplish is to copy a couple of tables from one db to another, if they can reach one another then its really simple, you could just create a DBLINK (http://www.dba-oracle.com/t_how_create_database_link.htm) and then do a SELECT AS INSERT from either side using the DBLINK for one of the tables and the local table as the receiver or sender. Its pretty straight forward.
But if its a one time thing i would just move the table with expdp and impdp since that will be a lot faster and a lot less strain on the DB.
If its something you need to maintain and keep updated, why not just add the DBLINK and use that on both sides, this will be dependent on network performance though.
If this is a bit out of you depth or you cant create dblinks due to restrictions, SQL Developer has had a database copy option for a while and you can go as far a copying individual tables, but its very heavy on the system where its being run (http://deepak-sharma.net/2014/01/12/copy-database-objects-between-two-databases-in-oracle-using-sql-developer/).

SQL Server : list all columns used in queries

Is there a way to detect which columns and which tables are used in a SQL Server database?
Just against SQL Server 2012 would be fine.
We can assume there are no '*' for column usage in the legacy site.
Details:
I'm working on updating the table structure of a legacy system to work on a newer database (2005 to 2012)
There are a lot of bloated tables, with columns that are never used, and even tables that are never used. Identifying all of them would be a pain by manually going through the code.
(My assumption is that we can run SQL Server profiler while running a complete test pass on the app, but I don't know a convenient way to extract the columns)
Thanks.
You can list dependencies for a table in Mgmt Studio, which will show you which SPs, UDFs etc depend on the table in question. You can't do that for a single field. However, that would only show the internal dependencies. Sql Profiler would theoretically show you all fields that get requested by your app however it still would not really tell you much as the app may not do anything with the values it retrieves. If you are going to change the db it would only really make sense to put in the effort if you were also going to change the app and then you should be really get some input from users on what features are still useful and what is broken before you get too involved in a back-end refresh. IMHO.

Performance hit on DB2 transactional database after linking to SQL Server 2005

We have an AS400 mainframe running our DB2 transactional database. We also have a SQL Server setup that gets loaded nightly with data from the AS400. The SQL Server setup is for reporting.
I can link the two database servers, BUT, there's concern about how big a performance hit DB2 might suffer from queries coming from SQL Server.
Basically, the fear is that if we start hitting DB2 with queries from SQL Server we'll bog down the transactional system and screw up orders and shipping.
Thanks in advance for any knowledge that can be shared.
Anyone who has a pat answer for a performance question is wrong :-) The appropriate answer is always 'it depends.' Performance tuning is best done via measure, change one variable, repeat.
DB2 for i shouldn't even notice if someone executes a 1,000 row SELECT statement. Take Benny's suggestion and run one while the IBM i side watch. If they want a hint, use WRKACTJOB and sort on the Int column. That represents the interactive response time. I'd guess that the query will be complete before they have time to notice that it was active.
If that seems unacceptable to the management, then perhaps offer to test it before or after hours, where it can't possibly impact interactive performance.
As an aside, the RPG guys can create Excel spreadsheets on the fly too. Scott Klement published some RPG wrappers over the Java POI/HSSF classes. Also, Giovanni Perrotti at Easy400.net has some examples of providing an Excel spreadsheet from a web page.
I'd mostly agree with Buck, a 1000 row result set is no big deal...
Unless of course the system is looking through billions of rows across hundreds of tables to get the 1000 rows you are interested in.
Assuming a useful index exists, 1000 rows shouldn't be a big deal. If you have IBM i Access for Windows installed, there's a component of System i Navigator called "Run SQL Scripts" that includes "Visual Explain" that provides a visual explanation of the query execution plan. View that you can ensure that an index is being used.
On key thing, make sure the work is being done on the i. When using a standard linked table MS SQL Server will attempt to pull back all the rows then do it's own "where".
select * from MYLINK.MYIBMI.MYLIB.MYTABE where MYKEYFLD = '00335';
Whereas this format sends the statement to the remote server for processing and just gets back the results:
select * from openquery(MYLINK, 'select * from mylib.mytable where MYKEYFLD = ''00335''');
Alternately, you could ask the i guys to build you a stored procedure that you can call to get back the results you are looking for. Personally, that's my preferred method.
Charles

Linked Tables - SQL Server 2008 to SQL Server 2005

I have a database server that currently has two databases, call them [A] and [B].
[A] is the standard database used for my application
[B] is used by another application (that puts considerable load on the server), however, we use a few tables sparingly (that are shared between my application and the primary application that utilizes [B]). Recently the use of [B] has been increasing and it's causing long wait periods and timeouts in my application.
I'm open to alternative ideas, but at the moment the quickest potential solution I've come up with is to get a second database server and move [A] to that. However, I do need access to some of the tables in [B] - ideally with as little code changes as possible.
We were thinking a setup something like:
Current:
DB Server 1 {[A],[B]} (SQL Server 2005)
New Setup
DB Server 1 {[B]} (SQL Server 2005)
DB Server 2 {[A], [B]} (SQL Server 2008)
Where in the new setup, DBServer2.[B] is a linked table (kind of) to DBServer1.[B]
I looked into linked databases, from my understanding (limited) those work as an alias to a database on another server, which is almost what we want, except it adds the extra server qualifier, and it works on the db level. I'd like to do something like this, but ideally without the server qualifier and on a table level.
So for example, [B] has tables Users and Events. The Users table is updated weekly by batch, and we use it often, so we'd like to have a local copy on the new DBServer2. However, Events we use far less often and needs to be real-time between the two servers. In this case, it would be great to have Events as a linked table.
Further, it would be fantastic if we could use the same markup for queries. Today to query one db from the other we'd do something like
select * from b.events join a.dates
We'd like to continue that, except have the database server know that when we touch events it's really located at dbserver1.b.events.
Does that make sense? I confuse myself sometimes.
Thanks for any help
~P
You can use synonyms for linked objects - http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms177544%28SQL.90%29.aspx
This unfortunately only works for single objects, you CANNOT make a synonym for linkedserver.databasename and then reference synDBName.table.
"Alternative Idea" from me since you said you are open...
How about looking into the cause of the slowness? What is the "Load" you are measuring?
How are your disks laid out on the server?
Maybe you could use more memory, another CPU or Some SQL tuning?
Fixing your issues with a software or hardware fix MAY be faster than getting a server and doing all the installs and then working through the integration problems you may run into.

MS Access 2007 and SQL Server 2000

I've recently been upgraded to Office 2007. I have several Access databases (that I've kept in the Access 2000 format for several reasons) that are linked to SQL Server 2000 databases. I have dozens of queries in these databases that I use often. I create new queries daily, sorting, summarizing and generally analyzing the data.
Since the upgrade, some queries take an extremely long time to complete (minutes rather than seconds), and one new one I've tried to run doesn't complete at all, I have to end task on Access. It's a rather simple query, it joins 3 tables, and sorts on one of the fields. I do this ALL THE TIME, and now it appears I can't.
I've searched for discussions of similar problems, but haven't seen specific recommendations.
Any ideas?
I would suggest deleting all your ODBC linked tables and recreating them from scratch as a starting point.
If your queries do not need to make any changes to the data you may find converting them to SQL Pass through queries will speed them up considerable. Note these queries are not parsed through the Jet DB Engine but sent directly to the server and bypass any linked tables.
You will have to use MS SQL syntax and lose the QBE grid though and the result will be read only.
If you need to update data then maybe stored procedures are the way to go.
When I converted to SQL Server backend, I used SQL Server Migration Assistant. I recommend it highly. It's very good at what it does.
Having said that, I assume you're using linked tables in your FE. I convert slow-moving queries by copying the SQL from Access, then pasting it into a "new query" window on SQL Server Management Studio. Then, working through all the syntax changes one at a time, I convert the query to T-SQL and save it as a view with the same name as the query in Access.
I have a little routine that then renames the Access query to "Local_" and then creates a linked table entry to the view on SQL Server. You'll find that a query that used to run for minutes will run for seconds this way. You can, of course, do this manually.
SQL Server Migration Assistant, by the way, will convert many queries (it doesn't try to convert action queries, only select queries...) with little or no intervention.
I would use Access Data Projects with SQL Server 2000. It works great when your SQL backend is that old.