We saw a note from Chad about a tool he wrote in the forums and asked him to write up some notes. Not only did we get notes, we got the source code! See what a DBA can do with some DMO.   Read more...

We've been trying to catch up on reviews lately, Hai was kind enough to give Entegra a try and report back on it. The basic concept is that it lets you do extensive auditing without having to add triggers. If you're trying to find an auditing solution, this is worth considering.   Read more...

In part one Chris Kempster covered a variety of security recommendations primarily for production systems. In Part two of this series he continues to explore security at a variety of levels where you may not realize you are vulnerable.   Read more...

SP_addalias isn't a well known stored procedure to most DBA's - do you know what it does? In what situations you might use it? This short article gives very quick and clean answers to both of those questions.   Read more...

Andy returns to the Worst Practice series this week with a short article looking at how connection strings in applications affect what you see in sysprocesses. Perhaps less controversial (in our opinion) that some of the other worst practices, this is something easy to fix and definitely worth fixing! Read the article and post a comment - explore other points of view! Readers posting a comment will be entered in a drawing for a copy of the SQL Server 2000 Resource Kit.   Read more...

Service Pack 3 for SQL Server 2000 is huge. There are significant changes in it and they apply to all three products: the core SQL Server, MSDE, and Analysis Services. Because there are so many changes, this first article in the series will only focus on the security changes.   Read more...

A monster book at 980 pages, it's written in 'how-to' format and has a ton of good material. Andy gave it the once over for us and reports back - see what he thinks!   Read more...

As a DBA you do not need to know how to setup an Active Directory domain or a DNS server, but you still need to know how Kerberos, Service Principle Names, and hostnames are used to perform integrated authentication to a SQL Server. This article by new columnist Chad Miller shows you some of the more integral parts of troubleshooting running Windows Authentication security in a SQL Server environmnet.   Read more...

Do you know the difference between a login and a user? What's the best way to add them; Enterprise Manager, T-SQL, or SQL-DMO? In this beginner level article Andy demonstrates how to use all three methods to add logins and users and offers his view of which is the best technique.   Read more...

These sets of scripts will add minimum password enforcement when a login is created or its password changes.  Read more...

Last week the SQL Sapphire (or SQL Slammer) virus hit corporate networks throughout the Internet. Although damage has not been estimated yet, it is sure to be in the tens of millions of dollars. So who is to blame when a virus like this manhandles a corporate environment?   Read more...

As a new DBA, you will probably walk into an environment that is poorly documented and nobody has any idea of how many SQL Servers are on the network. In the first series of articles, Haidong Ji talks about how to audit logins in your SQL Server.   Read more...

Andy discusses reasons why he thinks setting the default database to anything other than master is a mistake. We think he does a good job of covering the pros and cons, read the article and join the discussion!   Read more...

EFS provides a mechanism for encrypting files completely transparent to higher level applications such as SQL Server. In this article by Brian Kelley, he shows you how to implement this type of security in your environment.   Read more...

In this follow up to one of our most popular articles, Andy responds to comments posted by readers and discusses how to manage SQL logins effectively in your applications.   Read more...

When transferring a database to a new server, you are bound to experience a user problem. In this article by Neil Boyle, he shows you how to transfer passwords and accounts seamlessly to a new server.   Read more...

Andy says Windows Authentication "is bad". What? That's not what Microsoft says! Heck, that's not even what we say! Everyone knows NT authentication is the way to go. Then again, when was the last time Andy wrote an article that wasn't worth reading?! Read the article, rate it and add a comment - and automatically be entered in a drawing for a copy of SQL Server 2000 Performance Tuning donated by Microsoft Press.   Read more...

Andy sits down with an entry level book to see if he should use it at work as a teaching aid. Did he like it? Should you buy it? Read the review now!   Read more...

In the final article in the series, Chris Kempster covers some of the more advanced methods to securing your SQL Server.   Read more...

In this article by Neil Weicher, he talks about encryption of data and files for SQL Server.   Read more...