SQL server schema auditing?

Question

We have a SQL Server 2008 Enterprise database with two different schemas, a locked one that we maintain and an open one that we allow outside development teams to add to and

Answer 1

I've got a system that uses a DDL trigger for exactly this type of thing. It works well enough for my needs. It was originally developed on Sql Server 2005, and now lives on a Sql Server 2008R2 system. It's similar to the one described by the link in Aaron Bertrand's comment.

Create a table similar to this one.

CREATE TABLE [dbo].[SchemaLog](
    [SchemaLogID] [int] IDENTITY(1,1) NOT NULL,
    [PostTimeUtc] [datetime] NOT NULL,
    [DatabaseUser] [nvarchar](128) NOT NULL,
    [Event] [nvarchar](128) NOT NULL,
    [Schema] [nvarchar](128) NULL,
    [Object] [nvarchar](128) NULL,
    [TSQL] [nvarchar](max) NOT NULL,
    [XmlEvent] [xml] NOT NULL,
 CONSTRAINT [PK_SchemaLog_1] PRIMARY KEY CLUSTERED 
(
    [SchemaLogID] ASC
)WITH (PAD_INDEX  = OFF, STATISTICS_NORECOMPUTE  = OFF, IGNORE_DUP_KEY = OFF, ALLOW_ROW_LOCKS  = ON, ALLOW_PAGE_LOCKS  = ON) ON [PRIMARY]
) ON [PRIMARY]

Make sure everyone has insert permissions on the table then create a ddl trigger similar to this.

CREATE TRIGGER [ddlDatabaseTriggerLog] ON DATABASE  FOR DDL_DATABASE_LEVEL_EVENTS AS  
BEGIN     
    SET NOCOUNT ON;     
    DECLARE @data XML;     
    DECLARE @schema sysname;     
    DECLARE @object sysname;     
    DECLARE @eventType sysname;     
    SET @data = EVENTDATA();     
    SET @eventType = @data.value('(/EVENT_INSTANCE/EventType)[1]', 'sysname');     
    SET @schema = @data.value('(/EVENT_INSTANCE/SchemaName)[1]', 'sysname');     
    SET @object = @data.value('(/EVENT_INSTANCE/ObjectName)[1]', 'sysname')      
    IF @object IS NOT NULL         
        PRINT '  ' + @eventType + ' - ' + @schema + '.' + @object;     
    ELSE         
        PRINT '  ' + @eventType + ' - ' + @schema;     

    IF @eventType IS NULL         
        PRINT CONVERT(nvarchar(max), @data);     

    INSERT [dbo].[SchemaLog]          (         
        [PostTimeUtc]
    ,          [DatabaseUser]
    ,          [Event]
    ,          [Schema]
    ,          [Object]
    ,          [TSQL]
    ,          [XmlEvent]         )      
    VALUES          (         
        GETUTCDATE()
    ,          CONVERT(sysname, CURRENT_USER)
    ,          @eventType
    ,          CONVERT(sysname, @schema)
    ,          CONVERT(sysname, @object)
    ,          @data.value('(/EVENT_INSTANCE/TSQLCommand)[1]', 'nvarchar(max)')
    ,          @data         ); 

END;

View to select changes in order

create view SchemaLogOrdered
as
SELECT top 10000 *
FROM            dbo.SchemaLog
ORDER BY  SchemaLogID DESC