7 Trends in DB DevOps & Monitoring: The infographic
Earlier this year, we surveyed 5,700 global IT professionals and found out what the most pressing issues in DevOps and monitoring were. Read the round up in our infographic.
Creating a Database and Tables in PostgreSQL: Learning PostgreSQL with Grant
The syntax for creating databases and tables in PostgreSQL is similar to other RDBMS. In this article, Grant Fritchey shows how to create databases and tables.
Model Good Behavior
I'm answering a question in the forums and I spot something that crawls up my spine: ;WITH... The person was using a Common Table Expression (CTE) which requires that the preceding statement in the batch have a statement terminator, the semi-colon. However, since the terminator isn't required everywhere, lots of people don't use it at […]
Are You a Good Engineer?
A thread about what it takes to be a good engineer has Steve commenting on those characteristics that are important to him.
Debugging Flyway Callbacks and Migrations that Use Placeholders
Placeholders come in very handy in Flyway, but troubleshooting the SQL migration and callback scripts that use them can be tricky. This articles demonstrates how to develop, test and debug these scripts in a tool designed for these tasks, such as SSMS, leaving Flyway to do what it's designed for, which is running the scripts.
Is Your SSIS Catalog Migration Ready
In this article, we will see if the given SSIS catalog is ready for migration without any issues using SSIS Catalog Migration Wizard inspect feature.
SQL Server Monitoring Using Free Tools
You can do essential monitoring of SQL Server instances and databases with a FREE toolkit!
Install SQL Server and Oracle using PowerShell and Windows Containers
In this article we look at how to install SQL Server and Oracle using PowerShell to create development environments using Windows Containers.
Defining DevOps
Many people ask about DevOps and what it entails. Steve has a few thoughts on the challenges of adopting DevOps in a company.
How to Integrate Azure DevOps with Azure Synapse Studio
Learn how to connect your Synapse workspace to a Git repository.
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