Mini-Me

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Steve Jones - SSC Editor

Posted Thursday, November 20, 2008 10:06 PM

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Comments posted to this topic are about the item Mini-Me

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Post #606289

majorbloodnock

Posted Friday, November 21, 2008 1:14 AM

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Yes-ish.

Whenever I put something in to handle an event or act on a subset of data, I write something to let me see the opposite too - all the data that wasn't affected. That way, I get a quick sanity check that the process isn't too narrow as well as not too wide.

For more important processes, I'll also run those scripts a few times manually in the few days/weeks following go-live, once again as a sanity check. However, I don't generally schedule the scripts to email me. I do, however, have a few key jobs that'll naturally send out warning emails on failure, but I suspect most of us do that.

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Post #606347

IceDread

Posted Friday, November 21, 2008 1:45 AM

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Yes.

I do unit test and I test my code etc.

Then at my workplace, we also have testers, that sits and tests everything we do so that no weird case that results in an error might occur.

Post #606356

mike brockington

Posted Friday, November 21, 2008 2:29 AM

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I am not entirely sure what kind of checks you are referring to, but I have worked in some organisations where none of the checks rely on automatic monitorring, and I have worked in some where everything relies on it. The latter are usually the worst to work for, because they refuse to believe that there is ANYTHING wrong unless you can show them an alert in their monitoring tool.

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Post #606368

rustman

Posted Friday, November 21, 2008 6:04 AM

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We run audits daily on the "business integrity" of some parts of the data and send the relationships or mis-aligned data results to the Data Entry personal. This is strictly a preventive maintenance procedure and helps to find problems before they are sent through the system.

Post #606449

bperkins-791521

Posted Friday, November 21, 2008 6:21 AM

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Yes

At a previous job I had numerous jobs running against an ERP system database to ensure the integrity of the transactions processed. For example, compare the general ledger account balances for inventory to the extended cost of the actual inventory held in the system.

Typically I have jobs for:
- daily balancing reports
- system interfaces
- internal system integrity
- error conditions within the data

I find this especially useful for data errors that appear sporadically. It is much easier to track down the cause of this type of error when you get timely notification when the error occurs.

Post #606462

tosscrosby

Posted Friday, November 21, 2008 6:35 AM

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millsrustyk (11/21/2008)

Me too! I've been at my current position for 9 months. One major system is an access application where the database was ported to SQL 2000 about 4 years ago. The application, still within Access, is a total nightmare (currently being re-designed/rewritten in Java but won't be live for 6 months). Since I've been here, I, with direction from the user community, have developed probably 20 or so queries that are run each morning on the SQL Server Agent to trap for invalid/incomplete data. This data is ultimately retreived and presented via the web to our clients and we want to be sure our data is as accurate possible. We have probably been in violation of our SLAs for quite some time - IMO - but are slowly getting back within our obligations. Very simply, a case where business outgrew the current system capabilities and feeble, past attempts have not been 100% reliable (which has led to "out with the old, in with the new (ME!)"). The best we can do until the rewrite is complete and live is to attempt to cleanse our data and present the best end-results within our current constraints. It may not be the absolute correct approach but, short-term, it's the best we can do with what we've got. My only saving grace is that management understands and can deal with it until June, 2009.

-- You can't be late until you show up.

Post #606467

Scott Arendt

Posted Friday, November 21, 2008 6:59 AM

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Hmmm, I think I like the term Business Integrity Audits! I finally have a good description of the reports that I go through each morning to confirm that things are working the way that I expect them too.

Scott

Post #606483

Jack Corbett

Posted Friday, November 21, 2008 6:59 AM

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I can't imagine NOT having SQL Server Agent jobs that are checking things. I've used jobs, and even some RS reports with subscriptions to monitor data integrity. I had to do it to protect myself at times. I had one instance where the same data had to be entered into 3 systems (don't start, I wanted to automate the users didn't) and if you missed one there were calls made in the middle of the night. One user claimed that someone was intentionally deleting data they had entered in to one of the systems. Well, I then wrote an audit system that emailed their entire department whenever data was entered, changed, or deleted on that system and emailed weekly whenever there was inconsistent data between systems. Imagine my surprise when this person no longer had any problems!:P

Jack Corbett

Applications Developer

Don't let the good be the enemy of the best. -- Paul Fleming

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Post #606485

Scott Arendt

Posted Friday, November 21, 2008 7:02 AM

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Jack -

I started to write out the reasons why I had designed all of these reports, then just erased them because I would have had to add the "don't start" disclaimer too!

Scott

Post #606489

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