SQLServerCentral Editorial

The Train to Katmai

We don't have a release date, the final feature set has yet to be released, but slowly I can see the train building steam. This week I found a number of blogs starting to look at various aspects of SQL Server 2008. If you look through the newsletter, you'll see coverage of data compression, clustering […]

Technical Article

Write custom trace files in TSQL

SQL Server 2005's default trace is great for monitoring system information and for finding out what happened on your server after problems occur. However, there are times when the events that the default captures are not what you need. Here are instructions for how you can create your own trace files in TSQL to catch events on your database machine.

Blogs

Adding an HTTP MCP Server to VSCode

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I wrote earlier this week about the SQL MCP Server using the Data API...

Microsoft announces new cybersecurity AI multi-model

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Yesterday, July 27, 2026, Microsoft announced a new cybersecurity effort called Project Perception. Included...

Getting the SQL Server MCP Server Running

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If you’ve wanted a SQL Server MCP server for your databases, it’s available. The...

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Forums

Symmetric Key Encryption

By Steve Jones - SSC Editor

Comments posted to this topic are about the item Symmetric Key Encryption

The “Successful Login” Dilemma: Why Your Login Auditing Strategy Might Be Hurting Your Server

By Pablo Echeverria

Comments posted to this topic are about the item The “Successful Login” Dilemma: Why...

Building Your Own Software

By Steve Jones - SSC Editor

Comments posted to this topic are about the item Building Your Own Software

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Question of the Day

Symmetric Key Encryption

If I run this statement in SQL Server 2025, how is the password encrypted?

CREATE SYMMETRIC KEY MySymmetricKey
WITH ALGORITHM = AES_256,
KEY_SOURCE = 'My secret key source passphrase',
IDENTITY_VALUE = 'My secret identity value'
ENCRYPTION BY PASSWORD = 'S&perS#cretP@ssword7';
GO

See possible answers