Re: Stupid Database Tricks

>> 20. Change the superuser (DBA) password and don't tell anyone what
it is,
nor record it anywhere. <<

And the converse of this: Give everyone full admin priveleges. You can write the password on a post-it on the screen note if anyone forgets.

Years ago I did a consulting job where their shop actually did this. The application was for medical sales routes. We had some programmers who were experienced in this field and had some ideas about how to do it. There was no management; after all these guys knew what they were doing.

One programmer like to get his data from a source which used a numeric code for doctor's specialties and another programmer used a second source which used an abbreviation code for doctor's specialties.

They both wrote scripts to do a series of ALTER TABLE statements before loading the tapes from their preferred vendor. Both of them created documentation for what they had done and passed it out to the other programmers. This meant that one of the most important tables was unpredictable; it depended on who had loaded the last tape.

The solution was to get management and take away admin from everyone. Received on Thu Jun 24 2004 - 16:37:12 CEST