SSMS Maturity
Announcements recently for changes in SSMS mean that the tool many of us rely on is growing up.
How to Fix a Corrupt MSDB SQL Server Database
Keep reading and you will see that there is another way to rebuild the msdb database without compromising the master database.
Training Computer Scientists
What's the best way to enter this business? Steve Jones has a few thoughts on the traditional CS degree.
Survey: Development and Test Databases
Unless development happens directly on the production database, every organization will manage one or more development and test instances. Redgate is doing research to learn how development and test databases are managed within organizations. If you’d like to know more about our plans, or are happy to help us understand the problem, please take part in this 3-page survey.
The Importance of Our Work
Work is important, and it's a large part of our lives, but Steve Jones notes we need to keep things in perspective.
Trusting Source Control
One of the benefits of a version control system (VCS) is that you can look at the history of code changes. Ed Elliot shows us a situation where that helps a DBA track down a problem.
Grant User Access to All SQL Server Databases
Consider a situation when you have a large number of databases on your SQL Server, and you are requested to grant user access to all SQL Server databases. How can you grant access to a user for all databases on a SQL Server instance?
Learning about Multiple Tempdb Files
References and links to help you learn how to create multiple tempdb files.
Learning about the Cardinality Estimator
A few links to help you understand the Cardinality Estimator.
Learning SQL Server 2014
A list of technologies in SQL Server 2014 that you might want to learn more about.
Blogs
Narrow Task Decomposition in AI Pipeline Agents
A nightly load into sales_fact fails. Ask an orchestrating agent to break down the...
Car Update: August 2026
By Steve Jones
It’s been some time since I provided a car update, so I decided to...
Microsoft Fabric OneLake Shortcuts: When to Use Them and When Not To
By James Serra
An architecture scenario Imagine separate Sales, Finance, Shared Data, and Executive Analytics workspaces. Sales...
Forums
Managing Incidents and Fighting Fires
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Managing Incidents and Fighting Fires
Backing Up a DMK
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Backing Up a DMK
The Quiet Part
Comments posted to this topic are about the item The Quiet Part
Question of the Day
Backing Up a DMK
In SQL Server 2025, I have a database with a Database Masker Key (DMK). I want to back up this key and keep a copy offline. When do I have to open this key before running the backup?
See possible answers