How We Handled a Vendor Retry That Loaded Twice in Snowflake
The vendor file arrived twice overnight, Snowflake loaded both copies without complaining, and finance found the problem before the pipeline did.
2026-07-01
917 reads
Chandan Shukla
Downtime Caused by the Postgres Transaction ID Wraparound Problem
Learn about transaction ID wraparound in PostgreSQL, which caused a problem for the author.
2026-02-23 (first published: 2026-02-13)
4,968 reads
Stairway to Azure SQL Hyperscale Level 6: Backup and Restore Internals
Learn how backup and restore work in Azure SQL Hyperscale in this next level in the stairway series.
2025-12-17
865 reads
Stairway to Azure SQL Hyperscale Level 5: Data Growth and Fast Auto-Grow Mechanism
In this level, we learn about the database file size growth in Hyperscale.
2025-12-03
116 reads
Filtered Indexes: The Developer’s Secret Weapon in SQL Server
Learn about filtered indexes in SQL Server, how they work, and how they can help improve performance.
2025-11-24
5,006 reads
UNLOGGED Tables in PostgreSQL: When Speed Matters More Than Durability
Learn about unlogged tables and how they work in PostgreSQL.
2025-11-21
5,427 reads
MySQL’s BLACKHOLE Storage Engine: The Odd Feature I Wish SQL Server Shipped With
Learn about a MySQL feature that could be useful in some scenarios for SQL Server.
2025-11-10
4,348 reads
Stairway to Azure SQL Hyperscale Level 4: Log Service and Transaction Management
Learn about how the Log Service helps manage transactions in the Hyperscale Tier.
2025-10-29
1,114 reads
How Implicit Transactions Hurt SQL Server Performance Without You Knowing
Learn about implicit transaction and why you might not want to enable this setting.
2025-10-24
6,807 reads
Stairway to Azure SQL Hyperscale – Level 3: RBPEX Caching Layer Internals
In this level of the Stairway to Azure SQL Hyperscale we learn about the read-only layer that speeds up queries.
2025-10-08
494 reads
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Symmetric Key Encryption
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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'; GOSee possible answers