SQL Server Inventory and Database Documentation
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I've recently arrived at a firm that has well over 30 databases for various applications. The downside is that there has been no documentation on any of the systems. I've tried to encourage the DBAs and developers to proactively document the purpose of tables, stored procs,etc.. but this has been slow and coming. I've been looking at a few tools from RedGAte, but I'm not sure what else is available. Is there a good process or set of tools that can be used to document a database along with the means to inventory the details for a CMDB? Thanks.
DrMaltz "The Code King"
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I've recently arrived at a firm that has well over 30 databases for various applications. The downside is that there has been no documentation on any of the systems. I've tried to encourage the DBAs and developers to proactively document the purpose of tables, stored procs,etc.. but this has been slow and coming. I've been looking at a few tools from RedGAte, but I'm not sure what else is available. Is there a good process or set of tools that can be used to document a database along with the means to inventory the details for a CMDB? Thanks.
DrMaltz "The Code King"
I believe this situation is quite familiar to many (most?) of us :) The only good process I know is exactly what you mentioned, do it proactively when everything is clear in mind. Doing the documentation later is always somewhat gathering the pieces. About the tools, I think RedGate makes good products, but also this: http://www.dbdesc.com/[^] could be worth to look at. There are few areas these tools don't cover so if you use a tool to generate the documentation, I would still try to manually include for example: - E/R diagrams per subsystem (especially in larger dtabases) - if a table/view has enumerated values etc. in a column, what do they mean - same for procedures - privilege/role maps and so on Hope this helps, Mika
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