SQL 2005: Tracing… Not just for DBAs anymore

There has always been a gray fuzzy line on how much access does a DBA give to a developer working on a production database.   Too little access and they developer can’t do their job without involving the DBA and too much access has it’s own set of problems and is just not a good security practice.

It is common practice for developers to want to trace a SQL process to troubleshoot a problem or error.   In SQL 2000 you had a choice to either involve the SQL administrator each time you needed to run a trace, or have system administrator rights on the SQL server and do it your self.  SQL 2005 changes this with its server level permissions.  Using the following SQL command you can grant tracing permission to a SQL user.

GRANT ALTER TRACE TO username