Articles

External Article

Python for the SQL Server DBA

Python is increasingly used by DBAs as a general-purpose scripting language, despite the pressure to adopt Microsoft's PowerShell. They find it easy to learn, powerful, and reasonably intuitive. Here Timothy Wiseman, a working DBA, explains the attraction of Python and gives a general introduction to the language, suitable for anyone who has been wondering whether to give it a try.

2009-09-18

5,678 reads

Blogs

Methodology for dealing with bad data in production

By

Pinal Dave wrote up his methodology for what to do when you discover bad...

How to Provision an Azure SQL Database

By

Aside from spinning up a SQL Server instance container, the free Azure SQL Database...

Claude finds two cryptographic weaknesses (but the sky isn’t falling)

By

If you haven't seen the announcement, Anthropic was able to utilize Claude (Mythos Preview)...

Read the latest Blogs

Forums

Symmetric Key Encryption

By Steve Jones - SSC Editor

Comments posted to this topic are about the item Symmetric Key Encryption

The “Successful Login” Dilemma: Why Your Login Auditing Strategy Might Be Hurting Your Server

By Pablo Echeverria

Comments posted to this topic are about the item The “Successful Login” Dilemma: Why...

Building Your Own Software

By Steve Jones - SSC Editor

Comments posted to this topic are about the item Building Your Own Software

Visit the forum

Question of the Day

Symmetric Key Encryption

If I run this statement in SQL Server 2025, how is the password encrypted?

CREATE SYMMETRIC KEY MySymmetricKey
WITH ALGORITHM = AES_256,
KEY_SOURCE = 'My secret key source passphrase',
IDENTITY_VALUE = 'My secret identity value'
ENCRYPTION BY PASSWORD = 'S&perS#cretP@ssword7';
GO

See possible answers