RonKyle (8/1/2013)

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RonKyle (7/31/2013)

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Most would probably say it's overkill, but I prefix my OLTP databases with db, my staging areas with sa, and my OLAP database with dw. The names are otherwise short and clear.

Why? What do you get out of it that a clear name doesn't give you?

It allows reuse of the same name. All of the OLTPs have a corresponding staging area only for them. After the initial processes they are sent to centralized staging area so the data can be conformed across all incoming data. That final staging area and the OLAP data warehouse database also have the same same. So if I have two OLAP databases called CARS and FINANCE and my company name is KYLE, you would see the following database names.

dbCARS, whose staging area is saCARS. The sa is a further indication that the database is NOT querable (per Kimball). dbFINANCE has saFINANCE. Both sa s feed into saKYLE, which conforms the data and in some cases puts data in 3NF where necessary. Finally the data feeds into dwKYLE.

The dbs are not on the same server as the sa and dws but I think it makes it easier to see the flow, and on the OLAP server groups the databases nicely. I do have a dbETL on that server, which stores all the information about the ETL processes. As it has a db prefix, it is a querable OLTP database.