Articles

Technical Article

SSD, The Game Changer

I’ve often described SQL Server to people new to databases as a data pump. Just like a water pump, you have limited capacity to move water in or out of a system usually measured in gallons per hour. If you want to upgrade your pumping systems it can be...

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2009-04-21

6,824 reads

SQLServerCentral Article

SCOME - Centralize Monitoring with ASP.NET - Part 1

New author Drew Salem brings us a series on how to centrally monitor your SQL Servers. He includes ASP.NET code and a framework that will check your servers and display a report for you. This article presents an overview of the dealing with the SCOME issue.

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2009-04-20

10,126 reads

Technical Article

PASS Update #9

Time has flown by since my last update, busy time at work and struggling to get that done and find a few hours for PASS too. Here's a short version of what I've been working on lately: Added the Top 10 List page and have some starter lists from...

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2009-04-20

1,208 reads

Blogs

Microsoft announces new cybersecurity AI multi-model

By

Yesterday, July 27, 2026, Microsoft announced a new cybersecurity effort called Project Perception. Included...

Getting the SQL Server MCP Server Running

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If you’ve wanted a SQL Server MCP server for your databases, it’s available. The...

Introducing azsql-migration-test: Test and Validate Azure SQL Database Migrations

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Introducing azsql-migration-test, a small open-source CLI that validates your Azure SQL Database migrations against...

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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

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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