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
Using AI for Git Hooks
By Steve Jones
Recently I had someone internally ask about whether SQL Source Control supports Git Hooks....
Flyway Tips: AI Helps with Commit Messages
By Steve Jones
At Redgate, we’re experimenting with how AI can help developers and DBAs become better...
Startup scripts in SQL Server containers
I was messing around performing investigative work on a pod running SQL Server 2025...
Forums
SQL Agent job running gMSA cannot backup to NAS target
I'm running a group MSA for the database engine and SQL Agent in a...
sys.query_store_query question
All, My query is as follows: SET DATEFORMAT dmy SELECT p.query_id, DATEADD(MICROSECOND,-rs.max_duration,rs.first_execution_time) AS starttime,...
Encoding Strings
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Encoding Strings
Question of the Day
Encoding Strings
I have this code in SQL Server 2025. What is the result?
DECLARE @message VARCHAR(50) = 'Hello SQL Server 2025!'; DECLARE @encoded VARCHAR(MAX); SET @encoded = BASE64_ENCODE(@message); SELECT @encoded AS EncodedResult;See possible answers