Change Custom Property names (the tag name) easily

SQL is a real pain about changing column names, it's doable if there was an abstraction layer where all custom properties just showed up in the DB tables as something generic like node_CP1, interface_CP1, etc and then you have to reference another table to get the DisplayName associated with CP1.  Would definitely be a hassle for writing custom SQL reports though since people would end up having to memorize what node_CP1 was supposed to be.  You also still wouldn't be able to retroactively change their data types either. 

It all sounds pretty painful.

When assessing changes to my custom properties I always run this set of sql queries to figure out what the changes could break and where I'm going to need to fix things.  I deleted at least 20 custom properties in the last few months at my current gig using this method, spent lots of time chasing through reports removing references to things I wasn't keeping and redirecting them to the new property or ditching that column completely.

--Search for all instances of a custom property in Solarwinds
--Due to risks of slow execution I recommend doing these one at a time and not attempting to run all properties at once.

declare @Property as nvarchar(50) = 'mypropertyname'

--views and resources
SELECT distinct v.viewgroupname, v.viewtitle, r.resourcetitle, r.resourcename, rp.propertyvalue, v.viewid
FROM sys.columns cp
left join [dbo].[ResourceProperties] rp on propertyvalue like '%'+cp.Name+'%'
join resources r on r.resourceid=rp.resourceid
join views v on v.viewid=r.viewid
WHERE cp.name like @Property
order by v.viewid

--alert actions
SELECT distinct a.title, ap.propertyname, ap.propertyvalue
FROM sys.columns cp
left join [dbo].[ActionsProperties] AP on PROPERTYVALUE like '%'+cp.Name+'%'
join ACTIONS A ON A.ACTIONID=AP.ACTIONID 
WHERE cp.name like @Property
order by a.title

--alert configurations
SELECT distinct ac.name as Alertname
FROM sys.columns cp
Left join [dbo].[AlertConfigurations] ac on ([trigger] like '%'+cp.Name+'%' or reset like '%'+cp.Name+'%')
WHERE cp.name like @Property
and ac.enabled=1
order by ac.name

--groups
SELECT distinct c.Name as [Group], cm.name as [Rule Name], cm.expression, cm.definition
FROM sys.columns cp
join [dbo].[ContainerMemberDefinitions] cm on cm.expression like '%'+cp.Name+'%' or cm.definition like '%'+cp.Name+'%'
join containers c on c.containerid=cm.containerid
WHERE cp.name like @Property
order by c.Name

--view and account limitations
SELECT distinct l.LimitationID, l.whereclause, v2.viewgroupname, v2.viewtitle, acc.menuname, acc.limitationid1, acc.limitationid2, acc.limitationid3
FROM sys.columns cp
join [dbo].[Limitations] l on l.whereclause like '%'+cp.Name+'%'
join dbo.views v2 on v2.limitationid=l.limitationid
join dbo.accounts acc on acc.limitationid1=l.limitationid or acc.limitationid2=l.limitationid or acc.limitationid3=l.limitationid
WHERE cp.name like @Property
order by l.LimitationID

--reports
SELECT distinct rep.definition, rep.Title
FROM sys.columns cp
join  [dbo].[ReportDefinitions] rep on rep.definition like '%'+cp.Name+'%'
WHERE cp.name like @Property
order by rep.Title



/** uncommon use case
--SAM Arguments
SELECT distinct cts.[key], cts.value
FROM sys.columns cp
join  [dbo].[APM_ComponentTemplateSetting] cts on cts.value like '%${%'+cp.Name+'%}%'
WHERE cp.name like @Property

--SAM Arguments
SELECT distinct cts.[key], cts.value
FROM sys.columns cp
join  [dbo].[APM_ComponentSetting] cts on cts.value like '%${%'+cp.Name+'%}%'
WHERE cp.name like @Property
**/