What are your options for connecting to an Azure VM? Sure, a Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) connection will get you started but you'll soon need a full secure VPN connection. Azure can provide three different options for doing this: Point-to-Site (P2S), Site-to-Site (S2S), and ExpressRoute, but what are their relative advantages, and which one is right for the way you need to use Azure?
2016-05-19
3,041 reads
Atul Gaikwad details the differences between DELETE and TRUNCATE, including how they vary in terms of being rolled back.
2016-05-18
4,518 reads
In this article, Greg Larson reviews why a block predicate is important when you implement row level security using SQL Server 2016.
2016-05-17
4,426 reads
How do you go about transferring a disk-based workload to the respective memory-optimized design? How do you process memory-optimized tables? How important for performance are natively-compiled Stored Procedures? Artemakis Artemiou comes up with a step-by-step guide to implementing an in-memory OLTP solution .
2016-05-16
3,732 reads
There are some obvious advantages to having the Query Store, but what is the performance impact that it is likely to have on a busy OLTP database server? It is early days, of course and until we get more experience we have to rely on Microsoft's estimate of a performance impact of 3-5% on average. However, this will depend on a number of factors such as usage an the way it is configured. Enrico explores some of these factors in order to give a clearer picture of what you should expect.
2016-05-13
3,339 reads
Aaron Bertrand explores yet another scenario where a date/time function seems to cause the optimizer to behave unexpectedly.
2016-05-12
4,956 reads
2016-05-11
4,469 reads
SQL Server Server Audit has grown in functionality over the years but it can be tricky to maintain and use because it lacks centralization and analysis tools. It can do a fast and lightweight audit of many different activities including DML and DDL at both Instance and Database Levels - even the work of the DBAs. How do you check logins and permissions? How do you script an enterprise-wide audit solution? How can you hope to analyse the log data you get? Feodor Georgiev gets you started.
2016-05-10
3,537 reads
The next few years will be critical for the information technology staff, as they attempt to integrate and manage multiple, diverse hardware and software platforms. In this article, Lockwood Lyon addresses how to meet this need, as users demand greater ability to analyze ever-growing mountains of data, and IT attempts to keep costs down.
2016-05-09
5,553 reads
Scott Murray takes a look at what count function variations and related functions are available in SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS).
2016-05-06
3,345 reads
By Brian Kelley
During COVID, I attended training on software/enterprise architecture given by Mark Richards. One of...
For me, the objective is straightforward: have a backup strategy that is reliable, understandable,...
By DesertDBA
Note: This post is the invitation for T-SQL Tuesday #204 on November 3rd, 2026....
Comments posted to this topic are about the item The ##MS_DatabaseConnector## User
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Planning for Change
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Importing Excel files into SQL...
On SQL Server 2025, I run this code as a sysadmin:
CREATE LOGIN Demo WITH PASSWORD = 'Demo1234567' GO ALTER SERVER ROLE ##MS_DatabaseConnector## ADD MEMBER Demo GOI then login as Demo and run this:
USE sandbox go SELECT CURRENT_USERWhat is returned? See possible answers