April 9, 2010 at 7:25 am
xSQL Data Compare. Marvelous tool.
April 9, 2010 at 7:25 am
I have my favourites like notepad++, and onenote, and a few apps I wrote myself but I find the tool I miss the most when I work on a different machine is ClipX. Bsasically its a clipboard buffer. CTRL-Shift-V gives me the last 25 things I've cut.
April 9, 2010 at 7:32 am
I use Notepad, Excel, and Toad for Data Analysts (TDA). I feel like I could evangelize about TDA, but suffice to say I love it. Being able to see the tables, data, and being able to manipulate it is great. I used Toad for Oracle at my previous job. Today with TDA, I connect to all our data sources: Access, Excel, DB2, and SQL Server.
April 9, 2010 at 7:46 am
SQLCompare
SQLDataCompare
Ultraedit
SSMS
SQLServerProfiler
April 9, 2010 at 7:51 am
For me:
- My monitoring software (SQL Sentry is what I use, lets me get a quick view of all monitored SQL Servers from one spot, can do reports and send them off/etc.)
- A directory with some common scripts (not software but still helpful)
- Red Gate SQL Compare (At least where I work, I seem to always need to be running compare)
- Sysinternals tools
- I am starting to play with event tracing so I suppose the tools for collecting, viewing, storing that info
- Secure Password safe access somehow
- Desktop picture of the family 🙂
__________________________________________________
Mike Walsh
SQL Server DBA
Blog - www.straightpathsql.com/blog |Twitter
April 9, 2010 at 7:56 am
OK. If we are doing confessional stuff here, I'd have to admit I still use Access as an occasional way of getting a large range of Excel spreadsheet values into SQL Server. I know of no better way!
Best wishes,
Phil Factor
April 9, 2010 at 7:57 am
I find Multi-Edit very useful because you can copy/paste/delete columns as opposed to just rows. I'm sure there are other tools that do this as well. I find this essential for creating SQL scripts. Also has a macro recorder, which I use occasionally.
Regarding SQL Prompt - In all honesty, I tried it and found it a bit clunky. One of the main features that was of interest to me was the IntelliSense. But I found that often the IntelliSense would not even pop open until I typed the last letter of the word. I could even backspace by one letter and it would go away. Then type the last letter again and it would pop open again. (???) This meant that in addition to having to type the entire word, I would now also have to hit the ESC key to make the untimely IntelliSense window go away. Just didn't seem to work very well.
April 9, 2010 at 8:00 am
Hey Steve,
Great topic. Over the last couple years with SQL on Call I have found myself working in shops where I may be there a few hours and then I won't be back for a week because of the clients needs. I find that there are a few things that I need when I go to these shops. I went out and got me one of those USB drives and I alwasy keep copies of..
Backup Compression Tools 3 (Lite Speed, SQL Backup, and HyperBac)
A number of scripts that I use such as a script to remove orphaned users and a script that looks at Index frag and indexes not used.
But the tool that I get the most use out of is the SQL Sentry Performance Advisor. It helps be find poor running sql faster, and I love the history it comes with.
I do wish there were some tools that would do a security audit, along with a few other features.
April 9, 2010 at 8:02 am
Andrew, I think you should use the tools that help you get your tasks done as fast as you can. So if you use Access I don't see any reason why you should be beat up for it.
Chris Shaw
April 9, 2010 at 8:53 am
Idera SQL Diagnostic Manager. Wouldn't leave home without it. 🙂
"Technology is a weird thing. It brings you great gifts with one hand, and it stabs you in the back with the other. ...:-D"
April 9, 2010 at 8:55 am
UltraEdit
UltraCompare
SQLDump (A tool to script a table including it's data. I got this tool from a co-worker and didn't find it on the net so not sure how public it is, or how many other tools go by this name.)
SQL Profiler
(I'm not a DBA, I'm a project engineer for software that uses sql server backend.)
A nice tool would be one that would allow me to refresh objects (specify which tables) on the pre prod server from a prod server.
April 9, 2010 at 8:56 am
Phillip - Texas (4/9/2010)
UltraEditA nice tool would be one that would allow me to refresh objects (specify which tables) on the pre prod server from a prod server.
Redgate SQL compare and Data compare would be able to this for you
April 9, 2010 at 9:34 am
What is this QSL Server you speak of ? 😛
April 9, 2010 at 12:14 pm
What wonderful responses which I'm inhaling like ...:hehe:
Very often I just need to know what's in a table given a where clause.
Thus I still like my simple Browse tool, developed in VB6 app. 15 years ago, connecting to all kinds of databases using Windows ODBC. And, suprisingly, I still use it - to save that extra 30 seconds - or to see if it still works.
Although when it comes to a real database engine like SQL Server or Oracle and it gets a little complicated - I switch to the native tools for each product and write a real query. No way to get around that.
The only repository that left me speechless as to its ability to behave like an SQL database was Lotus Notes. Even though it's not an SQL database by primary design, you can establish an ODBC connection, get a list of 'tables' and 'columns' and start issuing SQL queries... very neat - but don't exaggerate.
April 9, 2010 at 12:42 pm
Phil Factor (4/9/2010)
OK. If we are doing confessional stuff here, I'd have to admit I still use Access as an occasional way of getting a large range of Excel spreadsheet values into SQL Server. I know of no better way!
Good one. :-P:-P:-P
Virtual PC.
SnippingTool (ships with Vista and Win 7).
ISQLW - though SSMS 2008 is beginning to win me over.
I've only used them once but RedGate's SQL Compare and SQL Data Compare saved me days of work recently when a client upgraded 6 ultra complex (over 10,000 objects each) databases to SQL 2008 only to find out their application didn't support SQL 2008. That is enough to add them both to my favorites list.
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