Database Patch News — November 2019 (Issue 1)

Welcome to Database Patch News, Buda Consulting’s monthly newsletter of current patch information for Oracle and Microsoft SQL Server. Here you’ll find information on available patches—including security patches—and desupported versions made available during the past month.

Time to Validate Your Database Backup

Another new client, Another bad backup I originally wrote this post in July but I am updating it today because it is so important.  Yesterday we did an initial Oracle Database Health Check for another new client and found yet again that their backups are useless. This time the client was taking backups regularly, but […]

Using the Data Dictionary to find hidden data in SQL Server

A client asked me recently how he could find a string in his SQL Server database without knowing what table or column it was in. The string was a translation of a code that appeared on one of the UI screens. This was a packaged CRM database and he had no documentation on the schema. […]

Why I Avoid Database Hints: a followup

In an earlier blog post about database hints, I gave a number of reasons why I dont like to use hints in SQL queries. Today I wanted to follow up to share one situation where I think hints are OK, even necessary. As described very well in an article in an article by Andrew Kelly […]

Bridge the Gap Between Database Security and Application Security

Strong Database Security Today’s database systems have sophisticated security mechanisms designed to enable the protection of data and the tracking of the viewing and modification of the data. For example, Oracle has database roles that govern what database objects a user can see and edit.  Oracle also has auditing features that enable us to track […]