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SQL Development Policies and Approval Processes

NineData uses SQL development policies and approval processes to help teams control database changes. Policies define what is allowed, warned, or blocked. Approval processes define who reviews a task after a policy requires approval.

Use these capabilities when multiple developers, DBAs, and application teams work on shared data sources and need consistent rules for SQL execution, schema changes, permission requests, data import, data export, and SQL review.

How policies and processes work​

When you create a data source in NineData, specify an environment for the data source. By default, NineData provides two environments: Production and Development, each with corresponding SQL development policies and approval processes to ensure that all data sources in the environment follow the same standards.

Create or customize development policies and approval processes, and then associate them with the target environment or data source.

  • Environment association: SQL development policies and approval processes apply to all data sources in the environment.

    tip

    If a data source has its own policy or approval process, the data source configuration overrides the environment configuration for that data source only. Other data sources in the same environment are not affected.

  • Data source association: The selected SQL development policy and approval process apply directly to the data source and override the inherited environment configuration.

SQL development policies define SQL review rules. When a user runs INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE, SELECT, schema changes, or other controlled operations, NineData checks the SQL against the selected policy. A compliant statement can continue. A risky statement may be blocked or converted into an approval task.

Approval processes define review behavior after a task passes policy pre-check. Decide whether a task requires manual approval, which approvers are involved, and which workflow applies to each task category.

Together, policies and processes reduce accidental changes, make approval behavior predictable, and give administrators a consistent control model across environments and data sources.

Modules​

  • Environment configuration: Associate one policy and one approval process with an environment. The configuration applies to all data sources in that environment unless a data source-level override exists.
  • Data source configuration: Associate one policy and one approval process with a specific data source. This configuration has higher priority than the environment configuration.
  • SQL development policy: Configure rules for schema changes, SQL queries, updates, and SQL task behavior.
  • Approval process: Configure how NineData handles tasks that require approval, including whether to reject, allow, or route the task to specific approvers.

Benefits​

  • Reduce accidental or non-compliant database changes.
  • Standardize SQL quality rules across teams and environments.
  • Apply stricter controls to production while keeping development workflows efficient.
  • Route risky operations to the right approvers.
  • Keep policy and approval behavior auditable.

Next steps​