T-SQL Tuesday 184 - Mentorship
T-SQL Tuesday is a monthly blog party hosted by a different community member each month. This month, Deborah Melkin
(blog) asks us to talk about our relationship with mentoring and...
2025-03-11
23 reads
March 2025 SQL Challenge: Test Your Skills with Advanced SQL Scenarios
If you’re an experienced SQL user eager to sharpen your expertise with real-world challenges, the March SQL Practice is the perfect opportunity. This month’s challenge is designed for advanced...
2025-03-11
6,578 reads
SQL Saturday Atlanta BI Recap
https://sqlsaturday.com/2025-03-08-sqlsaturday1102/#schedule SQL Saturday Atlanta BI is one of my favorite SQL Saturdays of the year. This year was especially sweet to see a lot of the SML (Saturday Morning...
2025-03-10
31 reads
Answering Questions On Dropped Columns
Howdy folks! Long time no write.
In this post, I will be answering a couple of questions from the previous posts about dropping columns.
A quick refresh
If you haven’t read the...
2025-03-10
7 reads
Mistakes IT Shops Without a DBA Make
We get it. There’s no budget for a DBA on staff, or even a contract support firm like Dallas DBAs. You are not alone! There are thousands of firms...
2025-03-19 (first published: 2025-03-07)
612 reads
A New Word: Waldosia
waldosia– n. a condition in which you keep scanning faces in a crowd looking for a specific person who would have no reason to be there, as if your...
2025-03-07
32 reads
Deploy at Low Priority
Learn how to deploy schema changes in an always-online SQL Server environment without a maintenance window. This utility reduces blocking and improves deployment success.
The problem
I attempted to deploy a...
2025-03-19 (first published: 2025-03-07)
209 reads
A Couple Quick GENERATE_SERIES Tests
I had someone reach out about generate_series() recently, saying they hadn’t realized this was a new feature in SQL Server 2022. They were wondering if it was better than...
2025-03-17 (first published: 2025-03-05)
382 reads
How I passed the DP-700 Exam
I recently took and passed the DP-700 exam, which is required for the Microsoft Certified: Fabric Data Engineer Associate certification. It’s the second Fabric certification, and it focuses more...
2025-03-17 (first published: 2025-03-05)
1,062 reads
Which approach to take: Build it, buy it, cloud it?
As a Consultant, I would typically answer with – it depends! Then a typical conversation starts with an expression of personal preferences based on experience, the organization’s history, and...
2025-03-14 (first published: 2025-03-05)
302 reads
Blogs
Adding an HTTP MCP Server to VSCode
By Steve Jones
I wrote earlier this week about the SQL MCP Server using the Data API...
Microsoft announces new cybersecurity AI multi-model
By Brian Kelley
Yesterday, July 27, 2026, Microsoft announced a new cybersecurity effort called Project Perception. Included...
Getting the SQL Server MCP Server Running
By Steve Jones
If you’ve wanted a SQL Server MCP server for your databases, it’s available. The...
Forums
Symmetric Key Encryption
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Symmetric Key Encryption
The “Successful Login” Dilemma: Why Your Login Auditing Strategy Might Be Hurting Your Server
Comments posted to this topic are about the item The “Successful Login” Dilemma: Why...
Building Your Own Software
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Building Your Own Software
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