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...

The second part of Steve Jones's series on having SQL Server automatically report information to a DBA.   Read more...

One of the most handy extended stored procedures in SQL Server is xp_cmdshell. This article will show you how to use it.   Read more...

As yo probably know, Brian covers security topics for us and does a great job. This week he looks at the fixed roles and points out a few things you may not have thought about.   Read more...

Andy takes us through a recent troubleshooting session that includes a call to PSS. Ever run agent from the command line? Have a good idea of what justifies a call to PSS? Read this to learn more.   Read more...

We asked Chris to put together some information on how he uses VSS, a subject that comes up a lot as we have articles and discussions that involve change management. Change management isn't easy, you definitely need a pattern to work from. This two part article gives you a pattern you can start with and customize to your needs.   Read more...

Securing your SQL Server can be an arduous task, but very rewarding. This article covers 10 steps to properly protecting your data.   Read more...

Disk space is getting cheaper everyday. Why should you worry about the amount of space your data is consuming? This article by Neil Boyle presents some great reasons why you should be concerned.   Read more...

How safe are your SQL passwords? Use these free tools to find out how secure your passwords are and generate more secure passwords.   Read more...

This article examines how index statistics are used in SQL Server 6.5   Read more...

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

One of the best ways to reduce the load on your server and increase application responsiveness is to reduce the number of "round trips" your application makes. This article by Andy Warren shows you a few ways to increase your performance by reducing round trips.   Read more...

In this series of articles, Chris Kempster will discuss some of the finer aspects of SQL Server security and also touch on OS, physical and application security to open up this science for general discussion.   Read more...

This article examines how index statistics are used in SQL Server 6.5   Read more...

This article examines some useful undocumented stored procedures in SQL Server 6.5   Read more...

This article presents the technical details of the page layout for data in SQL Server 6.5   Read more...

An alternative procedure for viewing locks based on sp_lock.   Read more...

A look at the different security modes availabe in SQL Server 6.5   Read more...

One of the major problems in the database field is when people store sensitive data unencrypted into SQL Server. This article shows you one of the most basic ways to encrypt data to the casual viewer.   Read more...

This article examines how locking occurs in SQL Server 6.5   Read more...