Stairway to SQL Server Reporting Services
A series from MVP Jessica Moss designed to help you understand Reporting Services and begin building reports.
You Should Know
Are there things you should know? It seems that we quite often find that others in our profession don't understand the simple things we assume they do. Steve Jones talks about one item in particular: staging servers.
Five DMV Queries That Will Make You a Superhero in 2011!
Way back in January, 2008, I wrote a blog post called “Five DMV Queries That Will Make You A Superhero!”...
SEQUENCE in SQL Server 2011
SEQUENCE is a core new feature of SQL Server 2011 (Denali). It is a more performant, flexible alternative to the INDENTITY attribute. This article introduces sequence and demonstrates how to use it and its performance advantage.
Life Without Keyboards
The way we input data is changing with the advent of the iPad and tablets. Is that good or bad for the acquisition of data? Steve Jones has a few thoughts today.
PASS Summit Location
Andy Warren has posted another one of his excellent summaries of what’s going on at the PASS Board. Andy, thanks...
Re-generating SQL Server Logins
SQL Server stores all login information on security catalog system tables. By querying the system tables, SQL statements can be re-generated to recover logins, including password, default schema/database, server/database role assignments, and object level permissions. A comprehensive permission report can also be produced by combining information from the system metadata.
SQL Saturday #66 - Colorado Springs
Come get a free day of training in Colorado Springs on Feb 12 and meet Steve Jones of SQLServerCentral.
SQL University: Architecting SQL Server Security, the Big Picture
Welcome to this semester's security week at SQL University. In previous semesters we've covered the technical aspects of SQL Server...
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...
Forums
Managing Incidents and Fighting Fires
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Backing Up a DMK
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Backing Up a DMK
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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