How to check SQL Server Authentication Mode using T-SQL and SSMS
Many times developers want to put logic into their code or SSIS/DTS package to check the SQL Server authentication mode. How can this be done programmatically?
SQL Server Workload Types and Hardware Selection
There are two primary relational workload types that SQL Server commonly has to deal with, the first being Online Transaction...
Enjoying the New Year
For the last Friday poll of the year, Steve Jones has a fun one. Add your input and give everyone an idea of how to spend the last part of this holiday season.
Generating SQL Server Test Data with Visual Studio 2010
As a database developer or tester sometimes you need to have production like data in your environment for your development or testing, but you cannot have the production data because of security and privacy issues. So how you can generate test data or replicate similar data as in production for your development or test environment?
Getting a Dedicated Admin Connection
Did you know you can easily get a Dedicated Admin Connection (DAC) in SSMS? I didn’t assuming that I’d need...
The Year of the Community
Steve Jones looks back at 2010 and dubs it the year of the community. Join him for a look back at some events in the SQL Server world from 2010.
Improving 2D Range Query Performance in SQL Server
When using the BETWEEN operator on multiple columns, you are likely using a 2D range query. Such queries perform very poorly in SQL Server. This article examines rewriting these queries for improved performance.
PBM and PowerShell
The best new management feature added to SQL Server 2008 is Policy Based Management or PBM. PBM allows DBAs to...
Getting Started with Data Bars in SQL Server 2008 R2 Reporting Services
I'm looking at several new visualization features in SQL Server 2008 R2 Reporting Services and the data bar looks like something that I could really use. Can you provide an example of how to use this in a report?
SQL Server Storage Internals Part 5 - Properties of Clustered and Non Clustered Index pages
In this article, I thought of explaining different types and levels of index pages. but while start preparing for that, I realise...
Blogs
Funny Money: #SQLNewBlogger
By Steve Jones
While wandering around the documentation looking for some Question of the Day topics, I...
Why Database AI Agents need Layers?
By Arun Sirpal
Third part in my Ai series with databases. When building AI solutions within the...
Un-Migrating From the Cloud: T-SQL Tuesday #199
By Steve Jones
This month we have a very interesting invitation from Koen Verbeeck. He has hosted...
Forums
How Do the Experts Become Experts?
Comments posted to this topic are about the item How Do the Experts Become...
Stairway to Reliable Database Deployments Level 4 – Preparing for Production Deployment
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Stairway to Reliable Database Deployments...
Secure Communications
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Secure Communications
Question of the Day
Secure Communications
As of June 2026, what is the best version of TLS to use with SQL Server?
See possible answers