The institution I work with has decided to migrate their database system to SQL Server 2008. One of the applications uses geospatial data, which consists of millions of rows. I understand that their are indexes that can be used for geospatial data, but have not worked with them. What's the scoop on them?
Learn how to use Dateadd/Datediff functions to manipulate dates in this short article from Seth Phelabaum.
Being responsible for data integrity as well as the cleaning of data can be a problem for an organization. Steve Jones reminds us today that we should be careful about changing the data we work with.
While it does not bring revolutionary changes, the release of SQL Server 2008 delivers functionality, scalability, and performance improvements to SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS). Here is a comprehensive listing of new and enhanced features of SSIS with a short description of each.
Performance monitoring and optimization is an inseparable part of a DBA's activities. To optimize a poorly performing system/query or to troubleshoot the performance issues you need to know the root cause. Prior to SQL Server 2005, we had several system tables to monitor the state of the system.
As data professionals, or IT workers, we often have a lot of insight into how much our services cost and the options that are available. But many times the rest of the company does not. Steve Jones thinks we could be more transparent, and possibly help them to be more efficient.
Sometimes it's important for a developer or DBA to be given the opportunity to 'shake up their brain'. What falls out is almost always worth having.
This article shows sow to create a queue from a SQL table to serve each operator exactly one item from the queue that has not been picked up by any other.
Joe Celko returns with another stumper to celebrate Easter. Unsurprisingly, this involves eggs. More surprising is the nature of the puzzle: This time, the puzzle is one of designing a database rather than a query. DDL as well as the DML.
Views can be an effective tool for speeding up your selects and simplifying complex queries. Learn what indexed views are, where you might want to use them, how to create them, and what constraints exist with their use.
A nightly load into sales_fact fails. Ask an orchestrating agent to break down the...
By Steve Jones
It’s been some time since I provided a car update, so I decided to...
By James Serra
An architecture scenario Imagine separate Sales, Finance, Shared Data, and Executive Analytics workspaces. Sales...
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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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