Quick tip: WMI alerts and SQL Server Agent permissions.
I came across an issue today while trying to create a WMI alert for a mirroring state change. The error...
2013-08-15
1,601 reads
Matt
In Memory OLTP with SQL Server 2014
SQL Server 2014 CTP is available for download and evaluation and it contains a couple of exciting performance enhancements. One...
2013-07-08
2,547 reads
Wildcards and Indexes
I was asked a good question the other day, one that I wasn’t sure of the answer. The question was...
2013-05-22
1,700 reads
Quick tip: Using sp_server_diagnostics
In SQL Server 2012 a new procedure sp_server_diagnostics returns a payload of information about server health and performance. The sproc...
2013-04-11 (first published: 2013-04-03)
4,075 reads
SQL Server 2008 Statistics: What does a DBA need to know?
I’ve been looking into the behaviour of statistics in SQL Server 2008 – so I’d like to present an overview from...
2013-02-20 (first published: 2013-02-14)
7,097 reads
Restore database permissions
Introduction:
I came across a couple of subtle gotchas around the permissions required to restore a database in SQL Server 2008+...
2013-01-10
6,284 reads
Migrating SQL Server Databases that use Database Master Keys
There’s a lot of things to consider when migrating databases between SQL Server instances. I want to provide some tips...
2012-11-26 (first published: 2012-11-13)
4,405 reads
Don’t believe everything you read: Truncate table is not logged
Actually I’m not sure if anyone still believes this anymore. If you read the BOL description carefully it states that...
2012-11-02 (first published: 2012-10-31)
4,441 reads
Quick tip: Count table rows in a database, and locate those rows in the data files.
Here are a couple of quick database and table level queries that I have found useful lately.
How many rows in...
2012-10-30
1,624 reads
Querying database usage
A question that a DBA will often be asked is what databases are actively being used on my SQL Server?...
2012-10-17
3,513 reads
Blogs
Narrow Task Decomposition in AI Pipeline Agents
A nightly load into sales_fact fails. Ask an orchestrating agent to break down the...
Car Update: August 2026
By Steve Jones
It’s been some time since I provided a car update, so I decided to...
Microsoft Fabric OneLake Shortcuts: When to Use Them and When Not To
By James Serra
An architecture scenario Imagine separate Sales, Finance, Shared Data, and Executive Analytics workspaces. Sales...
Forums
Managing Incidents and Fighting Fires
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Backing Up a DMK
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Backing Up a DMK
The Quiet Part
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Question of the Day
Backing Up a DMK
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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