Did you know that starting with SQL 2005 all future versions of SQL includes the default trace of all DDL or DCL modifications done on all DB objects?
I was inspired by Jonathan Kehayias blog to dig deeper and check other useful output from the default trace.
Let me remind you what are Data Definition Language (DDL) and Data Control language (DCL) statements:
- CREATE – to create objects in the database
- ALTER – alters the structure of the database
- DROP – delete objects from the database
- TRUNCATE – remove all records from a table, including all spaces allocated for the records are removed
- COMMENT – add comments to the data dictionary
- RENAME – rename an object
- GRANT – gives user’s access privileges to database
- REVOKE – withdraw access privileges given with the GRANT command
For example, I am pretty sure that you wanted at least once to find out if somebody with access on Production databases altered a certain Procedure (by create and drop), Deleted an Object or Created without letting you know or even by mistake? As well, granting rights to Logins just because some people can do that is a very bad habit with which maybe you had to deal at some point. Windows Administrators or DEV team leaders can take advantage of their high rights and escalate the DBA’s in some urgent matter.
Asking around didn’t bring you any answer right? Perhaps the person who did that doesn’t even know, or maybe it was part of a faulty deployment?
The modification may have caused some errors, or lost in permissions… At last, it is very useful to know right away if this kind of modification took place and you or your team didn’t do that.
To see what Events are logged – query the fn_trace_geteventinfo (trace_id) function by joining it with sys.trace_categories and sys.trace_events tables:
SELECT DISTINCT tge.eventid, tc.name AS CategoryName,te.name AS EventName FROM fn_trace_geteventinfo(1) AS tge INNER JOIN sys.trace_events AS te ON tge.eventid = te.trace_event_id INNER JOIN sys.trace_categories AS tc ON te.category_id = tc.category_id ORDER BY CategoryName, EventName
If you are interested in collecting all information in the last week displaying all Created/Deleted/Altered Objects as well as db_roles or server roles assigned to new Logins not by you, than you can issue following SQL code – tested only on SQL 2008 :
SET ANSI_NULLS ON SET ANSI_WARNINGS ON SET NOCOUNT ON GO --- IF (object_id('tempdb.dbo.#ddl_stmt') IS NOT Null) DROP TABLE tempdb.dbo.#ddl_stmt CREATE TABLE tempdb.dbo.#ddl_stmt ( HostName nvarchar(250) null, ApplicationName nvarchar(250) null, NTUserName nvarchar(250) null, NTDomainName nvarchar(250) null, LoginName nvarchar(250) null, SPID int null, EventClass int null, Name nvarchar(250) null, EventSubClass int null, TEXTData nvarchar(250) null, StartTime datetime, ObjectName nvarchar(250) null, DatabaseName nvarchar(250) null, TargetLoginName nvarchar(250) null, TargetUserName nvarchar(250) null ) DECLARE @filename VARCHAR(255) SELECT @FileName = SUBSTRING(path, 0, LEN(path)-CHARINDEX('\', REVERSE(path))+1) + '\Log.trc' FROM sys.traces WHERE is_default = 1; DECLARE @starttime datetime = getdate () -7 INSERT INTO tempdb.dbo.#ddl_stmt ( [HostName] ,[ApplicationName] ,[NTUserName] ,[NTDomainName] ,[LoginName] ,[SPID] ,[EventClass] ,[Name] ,[EventSubClass] ,[TEXTData] ,[StartTime] ,[ObjectName] ,[DatabaseName] ,[TargetLoginName] ,[TargetUserName]) SELECT gt.HostName, gt.ApplicationName, gt.NTUserName, gt.NTDomainName, gt.LoginName, gt.SPID, gt.EventClass, te.Name, gt.EventSubClass, gt.TEXTData, gt.StartTime, gt.ObjectName, gt.DatabaseName, gt.TargetLoginName, gt.TargetUserName FROM [fn_trace_gettable](@filename, DEFAULT) gt JOIN master.sys.trace_events te ON gt.EventClass = te.trace_event_id WHERE EventClass in (164, 46,47,108, 110, 152) and gt.StartTime > = @starttime and gt.LoginName not in ('NT AUTHORITY\NETWORK SERVICE') ORDER BY StartTime DESC; select * from #ddl_stmt