TDE, EKM and the Asymmetric Key
A look at how you might recover from a disaster using encryption and an HSM module in SQL Server 2008.
Built-In SQL Server Agent Performance Reports in SQL Server 2005
SQL Server 2005 includes a number of built-in reports to assist you in troubleshooting and measuring performance. In this tip I will cover the Built in SQL Server Performance Reports related to SQL Server Agent within SQL Server 2005.
Kalen Delaney at the Denver SQL Users Group
Sponsored by Dell, Kalen Delaney is coming to the Denver Marriot Tech Center on June 9.
Sins of SQL: The Time Table
Steve Gray discusses one of the oldest OLAP techiques for representing the time dimension - and shows why it's a lot easier to stick to DATETIME values.
TCA
SQL Server has a lower TCA, total cost of administration, than Oracle. Steve Jones comments today on a few of the reasons.
Statistical Sampling for Verifying Database Backups
A DBA's huge workload can start to threaten best practices for data backup and recovery, but ingenuity, and an eye for a good tactic, can usually find a way. For Tom, the revelation about a solution came from eating crabs. Statistical sampling can be brought to bear to minimize the risk of failure of an emergency database restore.
A Google-like Full Text Search
Implementing searching in your database is always a challenge and MVP Michael Coles brings us a method of building a Google-like search for SQL Server.
Getting the Message
Regardless of the speed of your SQL routines there comes a time, for any server-based system, when you need to think "parallel" and "asynchronous". So why, Phil Factor wonders, does there seem to be so little interest in Service Broker?
Free e-book: Introducing Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2
For a limited time, you can download this 10-chapter e-book: Introducing Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2, by Ross Mistry and Stacia Misner.
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...
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Backing Up a DMK
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BIT_COUNT in SQL Server
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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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