When Fabiano agreed to undertake the epic task of describing each showplan operator, none of us quite predicted the interesting ways that the series helps to understand how the query optimizer works. With the Merge Interval, Fabiano comes up with some insights about the way that the Query optimizer handles overlapping ranges efficiently.
A new series of courses is available from SQLskills to help you better learn to manage and tune your SQL Server instances. These classes are designed to help you complete the MCM certification, but are also valuable for anyone that wants to become a better SQL Server DBA.
Steve Jones talks about the value of deep training. He is aiming to get some from SQLskills this year as part of their MCM training series, even without trying to pass the certification.
The next webinar from SQLServerCentral will look at backups and how you can create faster, smaller, and verified backups. Join Steve Jones and Rodney Landrum for this presentation on SQL Backup Pro and SQL Virtual Restore
31 Days of SSIS
Today, we continue on with the 31 Days of SSIS blog series. Yesterday’s post was on the...
Learn how you can connect to a SQL Azure database.
This question comes up constantly in different venues. I see it sometimes 2-3 times a day on SQL Server Central....
This is going to be a quick one…
I keep seeing forum code (and production code) that includes the DISTINCT in...
"A recent blog entry I read reminded me again that I wanted to rant about an issue in SQL Server for quite some time now. SQL Server 2005 introduced the separation between user and schema. Though schemata already existed before SQL Server 2005, they really became usable with this version, imho. At the same time TRY...CATCH was a new way for structured error handling introduced. And so it finally became possible…"
31 Days of SSIS
The last post in the 31 Days of SSIS talked about the use of environmental variables. As...
A nightly load into sales_fact fails. Ask an orchestrating agent to break down the...
By Steve Jones
It’s been some time since I provided a car update, so I decided to...
By James Serra
An architecture scenario Imagine separate Sales, Finance, Shared Data, and Executive Analytics workspaces. Sales...
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Managing Incidents and Fighting Fires
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Backing Up a DMK
Comments posted to this topic are about the item The Quiet Part
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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