Slide Decks
Hello everyone! Just a quick note. I’ve removed all my slide decks from SlideShare. I found they were inserting ads into the slides and I didn’t sign up for...
2025-08-02
51 reads
The Scary DBA
T-SQL Tuesday #187: It’s Extended Events. It’s Always Extended Events
Joe Fleming wants to know how I solve weird problems. I’m not sure I’m actually qualified to answer this question since I, myself, am a weird problem, but I’ll...
2025-06-30 (first published: 2025-06-10)
345 reads
SSMS 21 Fixes Irritating Problem
I have a proper blog post coming out tomorrow for T-SQL Tuesday, but today, celebrate with me that SSMS 21 finally, at long last, fixes the irritating fact that...
2025-06-23 (first published: 2025-06-09)
1,035 reads
Query Hints and Estimated Plans
I’m working on an update to my Query Performance Tuning book for SQL Server 2025 and I found myself wondering, will a query hint be immediately apparent in an...
2025-06-11 (first published: 2025-05-26)
500 reads
Do Yourself a Favor, Check Out Woodler
I recently was privileged to speak at SQLDay in Wroclaw Poland… man, I love visiting Poland… Anyway… Great event. Worth your time to attend, and if you’re a speaker,...
2025-05-22
49 reads
Stack Overflow & AI
I won’t try to pretend otherwise, I’ve had some mixed feelings about Stack Overflow for a long time. I think the concept of the place, ask a question, get...
2025-06-04 (first published: 2025-05-21)
421 reads
SSMS 21
Just a quick one this morning. I’m on the road and haven’t worked up a full blog post, apologies. I’ve been using the preview for SQL Server Management Studio...
2025-05-12
211 reads
AI in the DBeaver Query Editor
You know I had to do it as soon as I found it was possible. Yes, I installed and enabled AI in the DBeaver Query Editor so I can...
2025-05-21 (first published: 2025-05-05)
265 reads
So You Think You Should Get a Radio
This is not database related, so if you’re not interested in hearing about something besides SQL Server, PostgreSQL, DevOps, community or data management in general, time to move on....
2025-04-30
33 reads
Can AI Read Execution Plans?
Yeah, yeah, second AI post in a row. I promise not to make a habit of it. But I saw someone else mention that you can feed them XML...
2025-05-07 (first published: 2025-04-21)
557 reads
Blogs
Methodology for dealing with bad data in production
By Brian Kelley
Pinal Dave wrote up his methodology for what to do when you discover bad...
How to Provision an Azure SQL Database
Aside from spinning up a SQL Server instance container, the free Azure SQL Database...
Claude finds two cryptographic weaknesses (but the sky isn’t falling)
By Brian Kelley
If you haven't seen the announcement, Anthropic was able to utilize Claude (Mythos Preview)...
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