Kusto (KQL) for Azure SQL Audit
According to Rod Trent, Kusto is named after Jacques Cousteau. He says, “We are exploring the depths of our data” by searching and querying our Azure log data. His...
2024-01-03 (first published: 2023-12-26)
319 reads
SQLKitty
Extended Events in Azure Data Studio
I know I can use extended events (xevents) in Azure SQL DB when in SSMS, but I wanted to learn how to use them in Azure Data Studio (ADS)....
2023-12-20 (first published: 2023-11-30)
324 reads
Azure Workbooks
I’m saddened that the Workspace Summary is being deprecated in Log Analytics Workspace. I am trying to reproduce it in workbooks. While it isn’t an exact match, workbooks provide...
2023-12-13 (first published: 2023-11-29)
323 reads
Importing Flat Files into Azure SQL DB
Initially, I thought I would have to use sqlcmd because I’m on a Mac and don’t have SSMS. It turns out Azure Data Studio has a nifty way to...
2023-12-04 (first published: 2023-11-20)
582 reads
Part 1: The Modern Azure Data Warehouse – Choosing The Tech
With reports hitting the transactional databases, we were encountering performance issues. We needed to choose a path forward that would lighten the load on the prod database servers and...
2023-11-27 (first published: 2023-11-16)
605 reads
Help! My Docker SQL Instance Won’t Start!
One day, I shut down my computer, as I usually do nightly. This time, I shut it down on a Friday and turned it back on after a holiday...
2023-11-17 (first published: 2023-11-03)
188 reads
Setup Ola Index Maintenance with Azure Runbooks and Terraform
Yes, you still need to do some work to maintain indexes in Azure SQL Database. This post will walk you through setting up statistic updates and index maintenance using...
2023-11-06 (first published: 2023-10-19)
502 reads
Temporal Table Data Fixes
I found myself in a situation where I needed to modify temporal tables. We do this outside business hours because we don’t want clients changing data while versioning is...
2023-09-29 (first published: 2023-09-05)
602 reads
T-SQL Tuesday #165: Database Job Titles Roundup
This month I prompted bloggers to talk about what database job titles mean to them. Thank you to all who posted on this topic! Don’t worry; if you still...
2023-08-16 (first published: 2023-08-15)
13 reads
T-SQL Tuesday #165: What Do All The Database Job Titles Actually Mean?
It’s an honor to host this month’s T-SQL Tuesday. In case you don’t know the rules already, here is a recap of them: Earlier this year, when I was...
2023-08-01
136 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