Get an alert when a certain record changes in SQL Server

Auditing a database is the first step towards staying updated about database changes. However, if specific, highly sensitive data needs reviewing, an immediate notification of any change is preferable.

Sending email alerts to one or more recipients is one of the most common ways of immediate notification. Sending emails for every change in a database is not advised. It will, in most cases, quickly fill your inbox, and add many unnecessary actions, which can also affect the overall application performance. Therefore, it is important to choose the changes that you want to be alerted about, carefully.

April 4, 2013

Audit SQL Server database and see who deleted a column value

Every DBA and developer strives to be in control of SQL Servers, databases and data. But, sometimes the situation can get out of control and unusual things start happening.

For example, you have noticed that a value from a specific table column in your database has been disappearing. You’ve checked your code as much as possible and didn’t find anything that deletes the column value, the users say they are not deleting it, you’ve checked the permissions on this table/column and found that no unauthorized deletes were allowed. But something is obviously wrong.

April 4, 2013

How can I make my custom applications self auditing?

SQL developers are increasingly required to include tracking data changes into their custom applications. The information about what change was made – insert, update or delete – who made it, when, and also which computer and application was used, is very useful and can be essential for troubleshooting.

April 4, 2013

Checklist for suspicious activity on SQL Server

It seems something went awry with the SQL Server. It’s sluggish, behaves erratically, produces heavy network traffic, there is a significant increase in the server processor or memory utilization, and to top it all there are reports of or database objects and data being damaged or missing.

Where to start looking?

April 4, 2013