sql server 2016 temporal tables and geodatabase

[JustinWolff]

Can the Temporal tables functionality in SQL 2016 be utilized within a geodatabase?  Or will that cause problems and we should just stick to Editor Tracking and Geodatabase Archiving?

Backstory: a customer has concerns with data integrity and desires a way (independent if possible, via the sql temporal tables) to track if changes are made, what they were, who did them and when they occurred.  The first item is what we'd need archiving for, and the others are handled via editor tracking.  Again, just seeing if using the sql temporal tables are even an option.  Thanks

[JoshuaBixby · Accepted solution]

How do you envision this working?  Assuming you are using versioned data, and not just editing base tables directly, what tables would you enable SQL Server temporal functionality with?  Mixing Esri versioning with SQL Server versioning seems complicated, and it is usually best to leave integrating underlying DBMS functionality with geodatabase functionality up to Esri, since they are the ones designing and implementing the geodatabase model.

[JustinWolff]

The DBAs of our customer agency ended up using the delete/insert/update tables to create custom views for their analysis.  This worked out well and avoided the need to enable historical versioning or geodatabase archiving.  You are correct though to recommend leaving the underlying DBMS stuff alone, and thankfully so did this customer.