13 disasters for production web sites and their solutions
Learn about 13 production disasters that can bring down your business
Building Wiki Web Sites with ASP.NET and SQL Server
You can easily build Wiki Web sites with ASP.NET and SQL Server and provide your teams with one of the most powerful ways of collaborating on the Web.
XML Workshop V - Reading Values from XML Columns
Continuing on with his series on XML in SQL Server 2005, Jacob Sebastian brings us more examples on how to delve into the values of XML data.
Developer Spotlight: Greg Low
Builder AU interviewed Greg via e-mail before the start of Tech.Ed 06 to talk about beta software, free databases, and the future of database development.
Microsoft Windows PowerShell and SQL Server 2005 SMO – Part 5
Part 5 of "Microsoft Windows PowerShell and SQL Server 2005 SMO" illustrates how to use PowerShell and PowerShell script to create databases.
Accessing .NET assemblies with SSIS
SQL Server Integration Services has changed the ETL process dramatically with many new capabilities. It's extensibility is unmatched, allowing you to build workflows that were not possible in DTS. Dinesh Priyankara brings us a useful new technique for referencing your .NET assemblies from within SSIS to take advantage of code reuse.
How to Insert Values into an Identity Column in SQL Server
Identity columns are commonly used as primary keys in database tables. These columns automatically assign a value for each new row inserted. But what if you want to insert your own value into the column? It's actually very easy to do.
How to link different data sources together
Describes how you can link SQL Server with many different data sources like a directory as Active Directory Application Mode, a Microsoft Indexing Server catalog, a Microsoft Access database and a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet. Also explains how to query linked servers using the OPENQUERY command.
An Auditing Solution with XML And XSL
Auditing is something that almost every DBA needs to tackle at some point in his or her career. David McKinney brings a new twist on the solution by using XML and XSL to help implement auditing in your SQL Server application.
Raffle Winners and a Thank You
Here are the winners of our raffle and we should be sending out prizes soon. A thanks as well from Katie's father to all of you.
Blogs
Microsoft announces new cybersecurity AI multi-model
By Brian Kelley
Yesterday, July 27, 2026, Microsoft announced a new cybersecurity effort called Project Perception. Included...
Getting the SQL Server MCP Server Running
By Steve Jones
If you’ve wanted a SQL Server MCP server for your databases, it’s available. The...
Introducing azsql-migration-test: Test and Validate Azure SQL Database Migrations
Introducing azsql-migration-test, a small open-source CLI that validates your Azure SQL Database migrations against...
Forums
Symmetric Key Encryption
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
Comments posted to this topic are about the item The “Successful Login” Dilemma: Why...
Building Your Own Software
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Building Your Own Software
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'; GOSee possible answers