Knowing which tables to drop - HouseKeeping

  • Hi,

    Over the years our DWarehouse has expanded and there are a few tables on the Databases that we think are no longer required but the question is how do we know which tables these are?

    I could look at the table

    sys.dm_db_index_usage_stats

    to see when a user or ssis package has accessed this last and then take a guess from this which table is not required. I was then thinking of renaming this table by adding "To_be_Deleted" at the end of the table.

    But I'm a bit scared if this table is required by a ssis package and then something else would fail.

    Has anyone any good ideas or scripts that would show me a league table of some sort of which table is popular and which is not?

    Thanks

  • You're already on to the better tool for the job. The index_usage_stats will show you, pretty much, what is being accessed, but, if you have monthly or quarterly or some other longer time period of jobs or reports, you may miss information since that DMO is reset at times. I think the approach you're proposing is safest, but it will take time and you might hit an error or two along the way. Just go slow, take your time, communicate to all the stakeholders.

    "The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood"
    - Theodore Roosevelt

    Author of:
    SQL Server Execution Plans
    SQL Server Query Performance Tuning

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