SQL Server Checkpoint Monitoring with Extended Events
In this article Aaron Bertrand looks at how to use SQL Server Extended Events to monitor performance of checkpoints for databases not using indirect checkpoints.
2020-03-03
Additional Articles
Get Your Scalar UDFs to Run Faster Without Code Changes
Microsoft has added a group of features called Intelligent Query Processing to SQL Server 2017 and 2019. In this article, Greg Larsen explains one of the features, Scalar UDF Inlining.
2020-03-02
New release: Mask SQL Server data 3x faster with Data Masker 7
In the latest version of Data Masker for SQL Server, it’s now much easier to rapidly identify sensitive data that needs masking, set up appropriate rules, see which masking rules are applied to which column, and locate what sensitive data you've yet to mask.
We’ve also improved the performance of commonly used masking rules, which lets you run masking operations 3 times faster.
2020-03-02
Enterprise Insights from the 2020 State of Database DevOps report
17% of Enterprise respondents in this year's State of Database DevOps survey reported that DevOps has been adopted across all projects in their organization. This year’s State of Database DevOps report gave us some great insights into the landscape of Database DevOps. Kendra Little walks us through those insights specific to Enterprise organizations.
2020-02-28
Introduction to Azure SQL Database Auto-Failover Groups
Azure SQL Database offers a number of resiliency features that deliver a mix of high availability and disaster recovery capabilities
2020-02-28
But the Database Worked in Development! Checking for Duplicates
As developers should not have access to production data, it’s possible that duplicate values can sneak in during migrations. In this article of the series, Phil Factor demonstrates a way to check for duplicates when unique constraints are disabled.
2020-02-27
Memory-Optimized TempDB Metadata in SQL Server 2019
For as long as I have worked with SQL Server, and on almost every system I've ever managed, tempdb has been a bottleneck in one way or another.
2020-02-26
Configure SQL Server Transparent Data Encryption with PowerShell
In this article Filip Holub looks at how to configure and enable transparent data encryption for a SQL Server database using PowerShell.
2020-02-25
Deployment Suite for Oracle: What’s New?
Stephanie Herr describes the new features in the Deployment Suite for Oracle that will help you automate your database releases safely, on Linux or Windows.
2020-02-24
Saving Game Data with Unity
One of the most critical things that a game must do is to save data like the preferences and score. In this article, Lance Talbert demonstrates two ways to save data when you create your game in Unity.
2020-02-24
Blogs
Methodology for dealing with bad data in production
By Brian Kelley
Pinal Dave wrote up his methodology for what to do when you discover bad...
How to Provision an Azure SQL Database
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 Brian Kelley
If you haven't seen the announcement, Anthropic was able to utilize Claude (Mythos Preview)...
Forums
Symmetric Key Encryption
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
Comments posted to this topic are about the item The “Successful Login” Dilemma: Why...
Building Your Own Software
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Building Your Own Software
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'; GOSee possible answers