SQL Social - Kent, UK
Andrew Calvett talks Analysis Services for the September meeting of the Kent SQL Server user's group.
Synchronizing SQL Server and SQL Azure
SQL Azure Data Sync provides data synchronization between the cloud and local SQL Server databases. Learn how SQL Azure Data Sync allows you to keep the most concurrent information in the cloud while allowing mobile users, businesses, and enterprise data sources all to have access to this data.
Getting Fired from an Unpaid Job.
Phil Factor initially brooded about being fired from a job he was just doing unpaid to help out. Then he suddenly realized that they were probably right.
Mid September Free Training from PASS
There's going to be over 30 hours of free online SQL Server training in the upcoming week and you're not going to want to miss out!
Top 10 SQL Server Integration Services Best Practices
Learn the top 10 best practices for large scale SSIS packages from a real world DBA.
Performance Issue with large number of Virtual Log Files in SQL Server Transaction Log
SQL Server transaction log files have an internal structure called the Virtual Log File or VLF. When the number of VLFs grow out of control due to autogrowth the log can become fragmented and cause delay. In this tip we look at how to see how many VLFs exist as well as how this can be reduced to a more reasonable number.
SQL Saturday #46 - Raleigh
A free one day training event in Raleigh, NC. Come to the first SQL Saturday in this city on Sept 18, 2010
Instrumentation
This Friday Steve Jones is looking for the instrumentation or monitoring that you build into your applications.
Identifying and Eliminating the Dreaded Cartesian Product
Cartesian Products usually don't provide useful information and often result in mistakes that can hurt your database developer career. Learn to spot Cartesian Joins and banish them from your SELECT queries forever.
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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