Technical Article

SQL Saturday #374 - Vienna, Austria

SQL Saturday is a full-day technical conference and training event with international speakers. With over 20 sessions on SQL Server and a separate pre-con, the event is aimed at all those interested in SQL Server - from pros to beginners. This event will be on February 28, 2015, so register while space is available.

Stairway to SQL Server Security

Stairway to SQL Server Security Level 6: Execution Context and Code Signing

A fundamental way that SQL Server determines whether a principal has the permissions necessary to execute code is with its execution context rules. It’s all complicated by the possibility that a principal has permission to execute code but doesn’t have permission on the underlying objects accessed by the code, such as the data in a table. This stairway level will explore SQL Server’s execution context, ownership chains, and impersonation, as well as show you how you can control access to data via T-SQL code.

External Article

Centralize Your Database Monitoring Process

SQL Server Data Collector, together with Management Data Warehouse, is a fine and useful component for gathering information centrally about how SQL Server instances are being used, and thereby keeping an eye out for problems. It comes into its own when you have figured out how to configure it to run on maybe hundreds of instances using Central Management Server. Dennes describes how to tame the system so that it scales.

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Multiple Deployment Processes

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Upgrading Admin Queries

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Question of the Day

Upgrading Admin Queries

I have a query from a former DBA that we run on SQL Server 2025 to check on database metadata. This query references sys.sysaltfiles. I want to refactor this code to be more modern. Which DMV should I reference instead?  

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