Providing unrestricted access to a production database is rather like opening Pandora's box - you never know quite what the consequences are going to be! Using tools like English Query, or even simple SQL, it is very easy to generate highly resource-intensive database scans. Fortunately you can 'police' your user's access by using the 'Query Governor' feature which first arrived with SQL Server version 7.0.

The Query Governor makes use of the fact that the optimizer will estimate the cost of execution of a query, before actually executing it. Using the Query Governor you can set a cost threshold beyond which a query will not be executed. To use Query Governor, right-click on your Server in Enterprise Manager, choose Properties and then select the 'Server Settings' tab.

In the 'Server behavior' section you can define a cost threshold beyond which a query will not be executed.