Question : What is the difference between Always On Clustered and Always On Clusterless ? Answer:   It is important to distinguish between these two flavours - Clustered vs Clusterless .              Version 1 -  Clustered Availability Groups  aka "Standard" Availability Groups which include Windows Server failover cluster . Introduced on SQL Server 2012             Primary Purpose is to offer High Availability               Version 2 -  Clusterless aka Read Scale A ..read more

Cross-database ownership chaining is a SQL Server  security feature allowing database users  access to other database objects hosted on the same SQL server instance, in the case where database  users don't have access granted explicitly Two examples of situations where cross-database ownership occurs. 1) A database view joining data from tables residing on multiple databases  2) A stored procedure accessing multiple database objects but at  the same time restricting access to the underpinning tables   How do I check my cross DB ownership chaining ? SELECT i ..read more

Question: I have a  SQL Server Agent job  in a disabled status. The disabled status is  applied to the SQL Agent Job and the associated schedule.  The problem is I'm logged on as a full administrator onto the Windows Server - and as BUILTIN\Administrator is defined on the SQL Server , but am able to manually override the SQL Agent Job.    Is there a way to Disable the SQL Agent Job where I'm not able to manually override the job? Answer:   There is no way to disable a SQL Agent Job where it cannot be run manually. The disabled option on a SQL Agent Job&n ..read more

Question: How can I check the current SQL Server Agent Job Status? Answer:  You have a few different options to check the SQL Server Agent Jobs Status. Option 1 : SQL Server Job Activity Monitor .Check the "Status"  Option 2 : Use the syshobhistory  run_status column - Check SQL Agent Job Exceution Status and Messages Generated with a sql script Option 3 :    SQL-DMO , reading the output from the CurrentRunStatus PropertyThe CurrentRunStatus property returns the executing state of a SQL Server Agent job. If you're using  the SQL-DMO method - the see the latest sta ..read more

Question: How do I enable SQL Server trace flags at startup ?      Answer:  To add a trace flag as a SQL Server startup parameter, use SQL Server Configuration Manager. By adding the trace flag as a start up parameter -  Start SQL Server Configuration Manager.  An alternative is to start  SQL Server Configuration Manager from Command Line Choose SQL Server Services is selected  On the right panel, right-click the SQL Server service instance -> Properties. Choose Startup Parameters tab. In the textbox, titled "Specify a startup parameter"&nb ..read more

Question: Do you have a query that returns the user permissions for the database objects ? Answer:  This query utilises the sys.database_principals view joined with the sys.database_permissions.  The sys.database_principals returns a row for every security principal for a SQL Server database The sys.database_permissions  returns a recordset of rows for every permission   SELECT db_pri.name As USERNAME , db_pri.type_desc AS USER_TYPE , pmt.permission_name AS PERMISSION , pmt.state_desc AS PERMISSION_STATE , pmt.class_desc CLASS , object_name(p ..read more

Question: How can I list all Foreign Keys referencing tables and columns within SQL Server tables?    Answer: This query will return 6 columns FOREIGN_KEY = Name of Foreign Key SCHEMA_NAME = Name of Schema TABLE = name of table COLUMN = Column name  REFERENCED_TBL = the table that has the key column that your FOREIGN_KEY is pointing to REFERENCED_COL = The column that is the key that your FOREIGN_KEY is pointing to kkk       use [mydb] SELECT obj.name AS FOREIGN_KEY, sch.name AS [SCHEMA_NAME], tab1.name AS [TABLE], col1.name AS [COLUMN], tab2.na ..read more

SQL Server Horizontal Partitioning  separates a table into multiple tables , all with the same  number of columns, but with fewer rows. A typical example is where you might have data - used for monthly charts -  separated monthly and each partitioned table represents a month.    Decide on a column to use for separating the data. An example column may be a date column.     This example code represents horizontal partitioning by creating a new new partitioned table.  --create test DB create database HorzPartitioining --create additional filegroups ..read more

Question: We have a number of  MS Access front ends using DSN connections through ODBC to a PostgreSQL database. All works fine.   There is a now a new requirement to no store the PostgreSQL ids in the applications but to store them in Hashiccorp vault.  Based on some research , there are quite a few methods to connect to Hashicorp , extract the password and use the information for connecting. One area I'm struggling to establish an approach is with Hashicorp Vault connections from legacy code based on VBA. What's a good approach? Answer:  A good starting point is the ..read more

Using a symetric key , how can I encrypt a column in a SQL Server database table? And what are some of the common pitfalls related to setting up column level encryption   In summary these are the steps =>Step 1 : Create a database master key =>Step 2 :Create a SQL Server self-signed certificate  =>Step 3 : Create and Configure a symmetric key for encryption =>Step 4: Encrypt the column data =>Step 5: Query and verify the encryption There is a previous post with an outline of the sql code How to set up SQL Server Column Level Encryption . The following post is adding so ..read more