This article documents a SQL injection vulnerability I discovered in sys.sp_dbmmonitorupdate, a Microsoft-signed system stored procedure. For other SQL Server security vulnerabilities I’ve discovered, see the full series here.
2026-07-22
In this article, you’ll learn step-by-step setup, Python code implementation, troubleshooting, and best practices to ensure your solution is secure and scalable.
2026-07-20
1,704 reads
Large databases usually have a negative impact on maintenance time, scalability and query performance. For maintenance, these large single databases have to be backed up daily while the amount of actual changing data might be small. For performance, tables without correct indexes result in full table or clustered index scans. As the data grows the total query time increase linearly. How can we decrease downtime for the maintenance window for large databases and optimize the performance of daily queries?
2026-07-20
Learn about implicit conversions, which can dramatically affect the performance of your workload.
2026-07-17
3,580 reads
Learn how to use VECTOR_DISTANCE and VECTOR_SEARCH in SQL Server to find semantically similar data.
2026-07-17
Learn about using classification as a technique to prepare your data for additional machine learning analysis.
2026-07-15
1,042 reads
I work with databases for a living. I teach people, and I help them via consulting. And as far as I can remember, I’ve never written something about how b-trees work.
2026-07-15
This article examines three recurring database-layer failures documented in the EDPB’s 2026 enforcement findings: the complexity of executing erasure across relational schemas, the backup paradox that can silently undo compliant deletions, and the audit log contradiction that traps organizations between two competing obligations.
2026-07-14 (first published: 2026-07-13)
This article shows how the TRY_PARSE() and TRY_CONVERT() functions can be used to handle data quality issues and ensure that your software continues to function without throwing errors.
2026-07-13
3,792 reads
A short introduction to how deadlocks work and how you can affect their behavior inside your system.
2026-07-13 (first published: 2026-05-01)
3,145 reads
Introduction I was experimenting with vector search in SQL Server 2025 using approximately 3.8...
By Steve Jones
This is timely, as I’m currently on a boat in the Adriatic taking a...
You can find the slides and SQL scripts for my session “Spice up your...
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Communication, For Incidents and Life
Comments posted to this topic are about the item PostgreSQL psql Meta Commands: Tables
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Building a Support Ticket Triage...
Which of the following psql meta commands (also called backslash or slash commands) will provide information about tables within a database?
See possible answers