So, your manager wants you to figure out how to encrypt sensitive Data? Well, Microsoft has introduced a fairly easy way to configure feature called Always Encrypted. Read more »
Aamir Syed
Aamir is a SQL Server Database Administrator in the NYC/NJ area (and has recently taken a role as a Database Developer).
He started his IT career in helpdesk world and eventually moved into the networking/systems administrator side of things. After some time, he developed an affection for working with Databases (mainly SQL Server) and has focused his career on that for the past eight years. He has worked for various industries in both large and small environments all with different needs.
SQL Shack has provided him with an opportunity to contribute to a community that has given him so much throughout the years.
View all posts by Aamir Syed
He started his IT career in helpdesk world and eventually moved into the networking/systems administrator side of things. After some time, he developed an affection for working with Databases (mainly SQL Server) and has focused his career on that for the past eight years. He has worked for various industries in both large and small environments all with different needs.
SQL Shack has provided him with an opportunity to contribute to a community that has given him so much throughout the years.
View all posts by Aamir Syed
Latest posts by Aamir Syed (see all)
- Is SQL Server Always Encrypted, for sensitive data encryption, right for your environment - July 27, 2018
- Use cases for Query Store in SQL Server - July 18, 2018
- When to Use SQL Temp Tables vs. Table Variables - February 21, 2017
Use cases for Query Store in SQL Server
July 18, 2018Query store was introduced in SQL Server 2016. It is often referred to as a “flight data recorder” for SQL Server. Its main function is that it captures the history of executed queries as well as certain statistics and execution plans. Furthermore, the data is persistent, unlike the plan cache in which the information is cleared upon a server restart or reboot. You can customize, within Query Store, how much and how long the query store can hold the data.
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When to Use SQL Temp Tables vs. Table Variables
February 21, 2017It is very beneficial to store data in SQL Server temp tables rather than manipulate or work with permanent tables. Let’s say you want full DDL or DML access to a table, but don’t have it. You can use your existing read access to pull the data into a SQL Server temporary table and make adjustments from there. Or you don’t have permissions to create a table in the existing database, you can create a SQL Server temp table that you can manipulate. Finally, you might be in a situation where you need the data to be visible only in the current session.
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Using Variables in Dynamic SQL
January 26, 2017Before we delve into these SQL concepts, note that I like to do all my development in SQL Management Studio. So if you want to follow along go ahead and open that up.
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How to configure Transparent Data Encryption (TDE) in SQL Server
December 19, 2016Introduction and Overview
Transparent Data Encryption (TDE) was introduced in SQL Server 2008. Its main purpose was to protect data by encrypting the physical files, both the data (mdf) and log (ldf) files (as opposed to the actual data stored within the database). Transparent Data Encryption Encrypts SQL Server, Azure SQL Databases, and Azure SQL Data Warehouse data files.
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PowerShell: Get a daily database status email
November 22, 2016The need for this script came about when I took a new job as a DBA. One of my responsibilities was to make sure all databases were available after the maintenance window which ran during the weekend. Rather than log into each database server and check that the databases were online, I had a script do the work for me and shoot me an email.
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Have your database server talk to you: Send emails directly from SQL Agent Jobs
November 7, 2016Recently, I was asked if I can write and run a specific query and have the results, (if any) emailed to a specific group of people every day? But only send the email if the query returns results. Who wants to open and empty email after all?
As with any DBA, we need a way to automate this process, as our time is valuable. Who wants to manually run a script, paste it into excel and then email it directly to users every morning?
Read more »SQL backup reports with PowerShell
August 15, 2016Let me preface this post by saying that this was a process that evolved over time. It started as a simple sql statement that emailed me a csv file. From there the actual SQL code evolved to display cleaner results. When I learned what powershell could do, I spent some time learning it during my lunch breaks at work. Even when I implemented a powershell script for the first time, it still wasn’t a clean looking report, but it was still better than what we had prior. Even now there is room for improvement but I am happy with the results and hope that it can provide some help to other SQL DBA’s out there.
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