Securing Your SQL Server Environment

November 2009

A secure database environment is the necessary foundation from which a DBA builds everything on. Learn how to secure your database, adapt to network security considerations, and discover best practices for data encryption.

Pivoting the Dynamic Way

By Mitchel Sellers

The PIVOT statement is a great tool for presenting data in an easy-to-read format, but it has one key limitation: You must know about and include all the column names in the PIVOT query. You can work around this limitation with dynamic pivoting.

Enforce Multitable Constraints Using Indexed Views

By Aviv Zucker

If you need to enforce business rules on multiple tables, try indexed views, which let you join tables and enforce uniqueness on the result set.

The Inevitable Virtualization of SQL Server

By Michael Otey

Improvements in performance and scalability in ESX Server and Hyper-V are making SQL Server a viable candidate for virtualization.

SQL Server Reporting Services Questions Answered

By Tyler Chessman

Use these techniques and sample reports to get answers to your most frequently asked reporting questions.

Calculating Concurrent Sessions, Part 1

By Itzik Ben-Gan

Itzik discusses a set-based and a cursor-based solution to a T-SQL concurrent sessions querying problem, as well as the performance and scaling ramifications of both solutions.

Securing Your SQL Server Environment

By William Sheldon

Locking down your database environment can be a difficult task, but it doesn’t have to be. Learn how to protect your databases by using service accounts and encryption to secure your database files and network.

T-SQL Statement Tracks Transaction-Less Dates

By Saravanan Radhakrishnan

A DBA was asked to produce a list of dates in which there were no transactions from a database that included only the dates in which there were transactions. Here's how he pulled it off.

Simple String Encryption and Decryption

By Eli Leiba

In SQL Server 2008 and SQL Server 2005, one of the easiest ways to encrypt and decrypt strings is to use T-SQL's ENCRYPTBYPASSPHRASE and DECRYPTBYPASSPHRASE functions.

Database Growth Tracker

By Kevin Kline

Track database growth across multiple SQL Server instances using this CLR stored procedure.

Time to Defrag Your Indexes?

By Andrew J. Kelly

When is the right time to defrag? Ultimately, the answer is up to you, but keep these considerations in mind.

7 Facts About SQL Azure

By Michael Otey

Get the basics on SQL Azure, formerly SQL Data Services, Microsoft’s SQL Server-based database cloud offering.

Search the Archives

Browse the Archive by:

advertisement

GOOGLE LINKS
SPONSORED LINKS
FEATURED LINKS