GroupBy is Back – Spring 2021 Edition
GroupBy Conference is coming back May 25-26 for it’s Spring 2021 Edition. There will be 20+ FREE data sessions spread across the two days. Sessions for Americas’ time zones...
2021-05-19
122 reads
Computed Columns for Grouping–#SQLNewBlogger
Another post for me that is simple and hopefully serves as an example for people trying to get blogging as #SQLNewBloggers. I ran into someone trying to do some...
2021-06-04 (first published: 2021-05-19)
368 reads
A quick primer on binary and hexadecimal
A few years ago, I wrote that a CPU is “a hot mess of on-off switches.” There’s more to it than that when you get into the weeds of...
2021-05-31 (first published: 2021-05-19)
434 reads
Daily Coping 19 May 2021
I started to add a daily coping tip to the SQLServerCentral newsletter and to the Community Circle, which is helping me deal with the issues in the world. I’m...
2021-05-19
16 reads
Testing SQL Server backups and offloading integrity checks
We have a fair number of pretty large databases, and I was having a hard time scheduling full integrity checks to run at least once a week. For a...
2021-05-18
29 reads
Nerd Journey Podcast with Nick Korte
I’m thrilled to have recently recorded a podcast with Nick Korte from Nerd Journey. He recently recorded a different podcast that talks about the journey from being an IT...
2021-05-28 (first published: 2021-05-18)
95 reads
Daily Coping 18 May 2021
I started to add a daily coping tip to the SQLServerCentral newsletter and to the Community Circle, which is helping me deal with the issues in the world. I’m...
2021-05-18
11 reads
Creating a configurable SSMS script
Several times over the last few weeks I’ve gotten a request to create a new work database. The individuals from ... Continue reading
2021-05-28 (first published: 2021-05-18)
786 reads
Creating a generic (template) pipeline in Azure Data Factory to send email messages with attached files from Azure Storage account
(2021-May-17) It took some time to come up with a final title for this blog post in my attempt to encapsulate its several major ideas: Azure Data Factory (ADF) pipeline,...
2021-05-26 (first published: 2021-05-17)
558 reads
One-click Portfolio Designs, Instant PDF Embeds, and More Improvements to the Block Editor
We have some exciting new block editor updates to share with you today including fresh collection of Portfolio block patterns, a new and improved way to embed a preview...
2021-05-17
25 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...
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Managing Incidents and Fighting Fires
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Backing Up a DMK
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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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