Best Practice for seeing live data on the dev server?
database, production
Solution
We replicate the data back to a different database. Yes, there is a delay, but it keeps people hands out of the production servers. This also allows us to "hide" information that tech support (and other people for that matter) aren't supposed to see.
Problem
Assumption: live/production web app suppresses errors being shown to end-users. Suppose your tech support team wants to see live data but through the eyes of the development-side of the application (maybe you want to see what errors are occurring, or want to see when you've got an issue fixed using an end-user's data). Right now we've got one database serving both the dev and live boxes (not my idea - I know it's gross). Ideas? Edit: Best/handy tools for implementing your suggestion?