Terraform Commands
I realized I never created a post to show how to deploy Terraform from VS Code. I haven’t done that in a while because I don’t do it at...
2025-08-13
48 reads
SQLKitty
Capturing errors and auditing in Azure SQL DB
Logging is a necessity in the database world, well, the entire tech world. You need to know what is happening in and around your databases. It’s easy to setup...
2025-07-07
206 reads
Query multiple Azure SQL Databases
I was sick of changing context in Azure Data Studio while cleaning up things discovered in our vulnerability assessments. Changing things via PowerShell I wanted to be cautious with...
2025-06-04 (first published: 2025-05-16)
420 reads
Azure Vulnerability Assessments
Regarding managing databases in the cloud, security should never be an afterthought. That’s where Azure Vulnerability Assessments, officially named Microsoft Defender, come in—they help you spot weak spots in...
2025-05-26 (first published: 2025-05-07)
427 reads
Using Cron in Postgres Flex
pg_cron is a simple cron-based job scheduler for PostgreSQL that runs inside the database as an extension. It allows you to schedule PostgreSQL commands directly from your database, similar...
2025-05-19 (first published: 2025-04-24)
382 reads
Why use XACT_ABORT?
This came up one day at my work when a developer was using it. I hadn’t used it before and thought I’d better check it out. It’s off by...
2025-04-28 (first published: 2025-04-11)
951 reads
Using SQLFluff
I thought I didn’t care about linting, and lately, I haven’t written a lot of SQL, but for the SQL I do write, I have SQLFluff to help me...
2025-03-18
260 reads
Save Azure PostgreSQL Backup to Storage
This may or may not be helpful in the long term, but since I’m doing it to be super cautious, I figured I would blog about it. We migrated...
2025-03-31 (first published: 2025-03-14)
211 reads
TSQL Tuesday #184: Mentoring and Sponsorship
Thank you to Deborah Melkin for hosting TSQL Tuesday this month! I’ve always considered mentoring and sponsorship very structured. Now, I wonder if they’re also small things we do...
2025-03-24 (first published: 2025-03-11)
6,590 reads
Migrating from Azure PG Single Server to Flex with Azure VM and pg_dump/restore
This is more complicated than using the Azure Migration method, but because it’s maxed out on resources for the last week in the east regions (and possibly central), and...
2025-02-10 (first published: 2025-02-09)
64 reads
Blogs
Don’t Miss Out – SQL Server Query Tuning Fundamentals Starts Next Monday!
Next Monday, February 9, 2026, my one-day live online training SQL Server Query Tuning...
Monday Monitor Tips: SQL Auditing Preview
By Steve Jones
One of the features we advocates have been advocating for is a better way...
SQL Server 2025 CU1 Fixes the Docker Desktop AVX Issue on macOS
Microsoft fixed the AVX instruction issue in SQL Server 2025 CU1. The container now...
Forums
25 Years of SQL Server Central
Comments posted to this topic are about the item 25 Years of SQL Server...
The Decoded Value
Comments posted to this topic are about the item The Decoded Value
Deploying SQL Server Developer Edition in Kubernetes: A Cost-Effective Alternative to RDS
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Deploying SQL Server Developer Edition...
Question of the Day
The Decoded Value
In SQL Server 2025, what is returned from this code:
DECLARE @message VARCHAR(50) = 'Hello SQL Server 2025!'; DECLARE @encoded VARCHAR(MAX); SET @encoded = BASE64_ENCODE(CAST(@message AS VARBINARY(1000))); SELECT BASE64_DECODE(@encoded)See possible answers