Running SQL Server Jobs using a Proxy Account
Proxy accounts are a useful tool to enable teams to work independently allow users who do not have administrative access to SQL Server to run jobs.
TSQL Challenge 31 - Managing multiple overlapping date intervals.
This challenge is adapted from a budgeting system used in a large company to perform quarterly analysis of what kind of work will be done and where it will be done. Project Managers make plans and the estimated hours of work required from each employee each month end up in a central database. Top managers want to see a synthesis of this by department and profession
Transaction Log Growth, do you need it?
One of the most common questions asked about SQL Server has to do with the transaction log and why does it grow. James Rea brings us a good explanation here of what happens and what you should do about it.
Would You Do Your Hobby for a Living
Today we have a guest editorial from Andy Warren that asks about your hobbies, and would you trade your job for one of them?
Sharing Your Scripts - Made Easy
Windows PowerShell v2 introduces self-contained “modules,” making it easier to share scripts with reusable functions, custom format views or type extensions.
SQL Saturday #22 - Pensacola
A free one day training event from SQL Saturday and the Pensacola SQL Server groups. Come join Steve Jones and Brad McGehee if you are in the area on Jun 5, 2010.
Personal Privacy
A new technique to help anonymize medical research data has been developed, and could help with other types of data, but there is an issue.
Sending HTML Newsletters in a Batch Using SQL Server
Sending a large volume of emails can put a strain on a mail relay server. However many people using SQL Server will need to do just that for things like newsletters, mailing lists, etc. Satnam Singh brings us a way to spread out the load by sending newsletters in multiple batches instead of one large process.
Using dates, and times in SQL Server: a workbench approach
In this workbench, Robyn Page provides a gentle introduction to the use of dates in SQL Server. In this new version of her article, it is brought up to date with the newer Datetime features in SQL Server 2005 and 2008.
SQL Connections 2010
This year SQLServerCentral is sponsoring another track at the SQL Connections conference in Las Vegas.
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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The Quiet Part
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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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