SQL Temporal Audit — Beginner to Advanced

A hands‑on guide to SQL Server System-Versioned Temporal Tables. This repo includes:

• Step‑by‑step labs and runnable T‑SQL scripts
• Clear docs from basics → advanced
• Best practices for performance, retention, and governance

Supported versions: SQL Server 2016+ (Temporal), SQL Server 2017+ (history retention policy). Azure SQL Database is also supported.

Quick Start

1. Open SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS).
2. Create a sandbox database and objects by running the scripts in scripts/ in order:
   • 00-setup-database.sql
   • 01-create-basic-temporal-table.sql
   • 02-insert-update-delete-sample.sql
   • 03-time-travel-queries.sql
3. Explore more advanced topics with the remaining scripts.
4. Read docs/ for explanations and diagrams.

⚠️ Always test in a non‑production environment first.

Repository Structure

├─ docs/                 # Concept explanations (Beginner → Advanced)
├─ scripts/              # Runnable T‑SQL scripts, numbered in order
├─ labs/                 # Lab guides with step‑by‑step checkpoints
├─ diagrams/             # Mermaid diagrams used in docs
├─ LICENSE
├─ .gitignore
└─ README.md

Common Tasks

• Add temporal to an existing table → scripts/04-enable-temporal-on-existing-table.sql
• Change schema safely → scripts/05-schema-changes-with-temporal.sql
• Set retention policy (SQL 2017+) → scripts/07-retention-and-cleanup.sql
• Partition history → scripts/08-partitioning-history-table.sql
• Tune performance → scripts/06-indexing-best-practices.sql and docs/05-performance-and-indexing.md

CLI (optional)

If you use sqlcmd:

sqlcmd -S . -E -i scripts\00-setup-database.sql
sqlcmd -S . -E -i scripts\01-create-basic-temporal-table.sql

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Contributions welcome via PRs and issues.