Recently I needed to use temporal tables. And not just for the job history table in a managed instance. In the vein of try it before you need it, (well, maybe a bit late for me I guess) let’s play with them a bit this month.

• Create a new table with a temporal table. (15pts)
• Run some inserts, updates, and deletes on the table (0 points, this is way too easy 😁)
• Review the data in the temporal table (5pts)
• Create a table on a high-activity table in a test environment (or a regular table and use a tool or some scripts to create high activity) and monitor the temporal table during the activity (20pts)
• This is going to take some time, but over the course of a week or so add/modify/remove data from your table (5pts)
• Write a few queries to view the data at specific points in time. (15pts)
• Turn versioning off and back on again (5pts)
• Modify the name of the table (5pts)
• Modify the name of the temporal table (5pts)
• Add then modify the retention period (5pts)
• Read up on other ways to handle retention (10pts)
• Remove a temporal table from a table (10pts)