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Command Prompt vs DB connection for BP data to be fetched from DB

TusharVarshney
Level 5
Hello,

I am creating a process which fetches the scheduler report everyday and send it to support team for their review/investigation. 

so wondering the best way of doing is using the Blue prism provided command in command prompt or should we use Data-SQL server object to fetch the information from Blue prism DB for least impact on DB performance.

As I observed, Command prompt is taking more time than SQL query.

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Tushar Varshney
Senior Consultant - Intelligent Automation
Ernst & Young India
+91-9880188366
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Tushar Varshney Senior Consultant - Intelligent Automation Ernst & Young India +91-9880188366
1 BEST ANSWER

Helpful Answers

John summarized it well. I'm not sure what more of an answer you're looking for. But I'll overexplain like I usually do. The answer to your question of whether command prompt switches are preferred over SQL queries, it depends on perspective. From Blue Prism's (the company) perspective, yes, using CLI is better because it uses the product the way it was intended to be used. From a developers perspective, no, using SQL queries is better because far more information can be retrieved and direct database queries are far more performant than the CLI commands such as to AutomateC. From your client's Security team, yes, the CLI is better over SQL queries because anytime you say 'access to the production database', any normal person would be apprehensive to that.

All that said, I have seen direct database queries work quite well, and unless you're doing a ton of queries constantly, I doubt you'll see any performance issues with the database performing its normal tasks for database, runtime resource, and interactive client communication or internal tasks and what not. Still, though, you might want to get a DBA involved to stress test a test environment using your queries first and ensure that it's not going to produce unwanted results. There's also the concern that there can be some kinds of sensitive information in the database, such as passwords (even if encrypted), so it's not something to decide purely based on the level of performance that you need.

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Dave Morris
Cano Ai
Atlanta, GA
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Dave Morris, 3Ci at Southern Company

View answer in original post

4 REPLIES 4

John__Carter
Staff
Staff
Using the in-built functionality is the recommended way as it keeps you within the security context of the product and uses the product as it was designed to be used. That said, you own the DB and are free to use it, provided you acknowledge the risk and take sensible precautions. Opening up access to a Prod DB is obviously something to be very wary of, as is the potential load additional queries may have on the DB, to the detriment of the digital workforce.

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John Carter
Professional Services
Blue Prism
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@John Carter - is using command prompt switches preferred over SQL queries​

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Tushar Varshney
Senior Consultant - Intelligent Automation
Ernst & Young India
+91-9880188366
------------------------------
Tushar Varshney Senior Consultant - Intelligent Automation Ernst & Young India +91-9880188366

John summarized it well. I'm not sure what more of an answer you're looking for. But I'll overexplain like I usually do. The answer to your question of whether command prompt switches are preferred over SQL queries, it depends on perspective. From Blue Prism's (the company) perspective, yes, using CLI is better because it uses the product the way it was intended to be used. From a developers perspective, no, using SQL queries is better because far more information can be retrieved and direct database queries are far more performant than the CLI commands such as to AutomateC. From your client's Security team, yes, the CLI is better over SQL queries because anytime you say 'access to the production database', any normal person would be apprehensive to that.

All that said, I have seen direct database queries work quite well, and unless you're doing a ton of queries constantly, I doubt you'll see any performance issues with the database performing its normal tasks for database, runtime resource, and interactive client communication or internal tasks and what not. Still, though, you might want to get a DBA involved to stress test a test environment using your queries first and ensure that it's not going to produce unwanted results. There's also the concern that there can be some kinds of sensitive information in the database, such as passwords (even if encrypted), so it's not something to decide purely based on the level of performance that you need.

------------------------------
Dave Morris
Cano Ai
Atlanta, GA
------------------------------

Dave Morris, 3Ci at Southern Company

@Dave Morris - Hi Dave than you so much. This is exactly i was looking for.​

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Tushar Varshney
Senior Consultant - Intelligent Automation
Ernst & Young India
+91-9880188366
------------------------------
Tushar Varshney Senior Consultant - Intelligent Automation Ernst & Young India +91-9880188366