SQL Server 2005 Encryption types
SQL Server 2005 provides four methods of encryption. Part one of this article covers encryption and decryption by passphrase.
College Life
Life at college is good. It's a time in many people's lives that they'll never forget. Steve Jones asks if you'd want to go back to your adult roots.
Predeployment I/O Best Practices
The I/O system is important to the performance of SQL Server. When configuring a new server for SQL Server or when adding or modifying the disk configuration of an existing system, it is good practice to determine the capacity of the I/O subsystem prior to deploying SQL Server. This white paper discusses validating and determining the capacity of an I/O subsystem. A number of tools are available for performing this type of testing. This white paper focuses on the SQLIO.exe tool, but also compares all available tools. It also covers basic I/O configuration best practices for SQL Server 2005.
Set Functions: The .AllMembers Function
Business Intelligence Architect Bill Pearson introduces the useful .AllMembers function, reinforcing the basic concepts, as always, with hands-on practice examples.
Corporate Programming Sucks
Does it suck to be a corporate programmer? Joel Spolsky things so, but Steve Jones takes issue with it.
Toward Integrity Part 5
An exploration of the process of translating a conceptual model to a logical model, and ultimately, a faithful implementation using T-SQL.
When To Use Cursors
Most SQL Server DBAs have been taught that cursors are bad and should not be used. However there are some cases and places where they might be useful. SQL Server guru Andy Warren brings us an example of where they may be handy.
Introduction to Locking in SQL Server
Locking is a major part of every RDBMS and is important to know about. It is a database functionality which without a multi-user environment could not work. The main problem of locking is that in an essence it's a logical and not physical problem. This means that no amount of hardware will help you in the end. Yes you might cut execution times but this is only a virtual fix.
Introduction to SQL Server 2005 Database Backups
Backing up a database is one of the most important things you need to do when having a database driven application. It 's only all of your data in there, right? But often developers and management don't realize the importance of backups and overall proper backup strategy for the most important side of the business – data and it's consistency.
Blogs
Flyway Tips: AI Deployment Script Descriptions
By Steve Jones
With the AI push being everywhere, Redgate is no exception. We’ve been getting requests,...
A New Word: Fawtle
By Steve Jones
fawtle – n. a weird little flaw built into your partner that somehow only...
Post-quantum key exchange – Insurance policy for your packets
AWS recently added support for Post-Quantum Key Exchange for TLS in Application Load Balancer...
Forums
Where Your Value Separates You from Others
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Where Your Value Separates You...
Fixing the Error
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Fixing the Error
T-SQL in SQL Server 2025: Encoding Functions
Comments posted to this topic are about the item T-SQL in SQL Server 2025:...
Question of the Day
Fixing the Error
On SQL Server 2025, I have a database that has this collation: SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS. I decide I want to run this code:
SELECT UNISTR('*3041*308A*304C*3068 and good night', '*') AS 'A Classic';
I get this error:Msg 9844, Level 16, State 4, Line 24 The char/varchar input type uses an unsupported collation. Only a UTF8 collation is supported with char/varchar input type in UNISTR function.What is the easiest way to fix this error? See possible answers