Posted by teedilo@gmail.com on 01/20/06 22:03

Our MS SQL (SQL Server 2000) DBA has database privileges locked down
pretty tightly. We end users/developers do not have administrator
privileges for most databases. That arrangement has worked out OK for
the most part. However, it's a bit aggravating that we can't even
create our own database diagrams. When we attempt to do so (in
Enterprise Manager), we get a dialog that says "You do not have
sufficient privilege to create a new database diagram."

Our DBA is so busy that it's difficult to get them to create ones for
us. And even when they do, it seems that we can't even view it online
-- we rely on the DBA to give us printed copies or screenshots for our
documentation. How ridiculous is that? We'd also like to be able to
manipulate the diagrams online so that we can more easily study our
table structures, indexes, foreign key constraints, etc. In fact,
there doesn't even seem to be any other way to easily view current
foreign key constraints.

I realize that this might have to do with the diagramming tool having
the ability to actually manipulate the database in ways we aren't
supposed to do (e.g., like creating new tables). However, isn't there
a "read-only" version of this tool that will give us what I'm looking
for? Short of that, are there any other free or cheap tools that will
provide this? Thanks!

(Please forgive my ignorance if this has been hashed out before.
However, I did search news groups and the web before posting, figuring
this had been covered before, but I didn't find anything that
specifically addressed this issue.)

[Back to original message]