Settings That Could Be Hurting Your Performance If you’ve ever created a new SQL Server database and just left the default settings alone, you’re not alone. Microsoft provides a...
2025-07-09
110 reads
Understanding the Limits Before You Hit Them If you’re responsible for a SQL Server instance but don’t live and breathe licensing, you’re not alone. Many IT managers and sysadmins...
2025-07-09 (first published: 2025-06-25)
458 reads
Useful tips to make your jobs more stable Too many IT teams treat SQL Server Agent jobs like a coffee timer “Set it and forget it!” Unfortunately, that mindset...
2025-07-02 (first published: 2025-06-11)
570 reads
A Goldmine of Clues You Might Be Ignoring SQL Server’s Error Logs often get overlooked, until something breaks. But if you know how to use them, they can tell...
2025-07-02
96 reads
Configuration, Performance, and Unnecessary Usage TempDB is the SQL Server equivalent of a junk drawer – everyone uses it, nobody monitors it, and eventually it becomes a bottleneck you...
2025-06-23 (first published: 2025-06-04)
839 reads
Things your cloud vendor may not tell you Here’s a common theme I hear from small IT teams: “Our SQL Server is in the cloud now. We don’t...
2025-06-18
40 reads
If your SQL Server has both SQL and Windows logins and you’re not sure why, you’re not alone. Many IT teams without a dedicated DBA bump into this sooner...
2025-06-11 (first published: 2025-05-21)
525 reads
The Two-Layer Model Explained “We added them to the database, but they still can’t connect.” Sound familiar? That’s the kind of confusion SQL Server’s two-layer security model creates when...
2025-05-28
110 reads
Too many IT teams run index rebuild jobs on autopilot. Every night. Every index. No questions asked. Here’s the truth: if you’re doing this daily on indexes smaller than...
2025-05-26 (first published: 2025-05-14)
674 reads
Indexes 101: What, Why, and When? “What Is an Index?” I get this question a lot, especially from developers and sysadmins who’ve been handed a SQL Server and told,...
2025-05-12 (first published: 2025-04-23)
268 reads
A nightly load into sales_fact fails. Ask an orchestrating agent to break down the...
By Steve Jones
It’s been some time since I provided a car update, so I decided to...
By James Serra
An architecture scenario Imagine separate Sales, Finance, Shared Data, and Executive Analytics workspaces. Sales...
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Managing Incidents and Fighting Fires
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Backing Up a DMK
Comments posted to this topic are about the item The Quiet Part
In SQL Server 2025, I have a database with a Database Masker Key (DMK). I want to back up this key and keep a copy offline. When do I have to open this key before running the backup?
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