Scaling Up
Would you want to manage a VLDB? Or write the code for an application that uses one? This Friday Steve Jones asks the question of you.
Getting Started with SQL Azure Development
SQL Azure provides features similar to a relational database for your cloud apps. We’ll show you how to start developing for SQL Azure today.
A Collaborative Approach To Table Compression
A start at identifying and creating TSQL statements for tables that may benefit from compression.
Operating in Failure
Today we have an editorial from Sept 25, 2005 being republished as Steve is on vacation. This one talks about the need to expect failure in our systems and code for it.
31 Days of SSIS – Recursive SSIS Package (6/31)
31 Days of SSIS
As I mentioned in the introductory post, I’m writing 31 Days of SSIS. In the first post...
Trending Buffer Pool Performance Using DMV sys.dm_os_performance_counters
I'd seen you posted a tip on capturing SQL based PerfMon counters using sys.dm_os_performance_counters. What queries can I run against those stored results that would allow me to examine memory usage on my SQL instance?
The Importance of My Cloud Data
Steve Jones likes the cloud, but doesn't necessarily trust it. After a recent Hotmail outage, he outlines a potential issue that he sees with cloud computing.
Data Conversion in SQL Server
Most of the time, you do not have to worry about implicit conversion in SQL expressions, or when assigning a value to a column. Just occasionally, though, you'll find that data gets truncated, queries run slowly, or comparisons just seem plain wrong. Robert Sheldon explains why you sometimes need to be very careful if you mix data types when manipulating values.
Date Rounding Tactics and the Tiny Devil of SMALLDATETIME
Tiny Devils
With every new year I think a little bit about time and dates. This posts looks a little more...
DevWeek & SQL Server DevCon 2011
The 14th annual DevWeek conference takes place from 14-18 March 2011, at the Barbican Centre in central London, and once again incorporates two dedicated tracks on SQL Server, alongside seven concurrent tracks aimed at software developers.
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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