Do You Want to Be a Cryptographer?

Alan Turing

I've always been interested in information security since 2003, but it wasn't until I enrolled on the cryptography module — while studying for a Master in Advanced Computer Science in England in 2018— that I started getting more keen on the mathematical side of cryptography; perhaps it was in part because I cherish mathematics and had the right cryptography teacher. What's more, I admire Alan Turing since he strove to do good work in difficult conditions during World War II; his work saved millions of lives. All of these things together inspired me to immerse myself in the world of cryptography. 

Installing a stand-alone SQL Server 2017 instance step by step

Undoubtedly, many of us have the task of installing a new stand-alone SQL Server instance which includes the database engine service only. For instance, it can primarily be needed for dedicated and consolidated OLTP environments. Consequently, we can be asked to create a formal document for others so that they can easily follow it for future installations and standard configurations.

Today's post is going to outline the process of installing a basic stand-alone SQL Server 2017 instance. This process is just a basic guideline and, surely, not a rule for each installation, because it is fully understood that every environment is different and needs a customised installation to meet very specific requirements. You can read the whole tip about it at mssqltips here https://www.mssqltips.com/sqlservertip/5616/steps-to-install-a-standalone-sql-server-2017-instance. I hope you find it very useful and practical. That's all for now. Please let me know any remarks you may have. Stay tuned!

Configuring Read-Only Routing and load-balancing across Read-Only replicas

With the arrival of AlwaysOn Availability Group in SQL Server 2012, implementing HA+DR solutions have been an easier and not expensive task in comparison to legacy architectures such as Database Mirroring for HA and Log Shipping for DR, and FCI for HA and Database Mirroring for DR. Nevertheless, at the beginning not everyone has been fully aware of all the power of this technology so that some might not have made the most out of it. Naturally, this technology has been improved over the years, for instance, load-balancing across readable secondary replicas was added, and today in this post, I am coming with a script to configure it.

Quickly Checking for Stale Statistics in SQL Server

Monitoring the state of database statistics is crucial because they significantly influence overall performance. When statistics become outdated, performance degradation is inevitable, often leading to slow and inefficient systems—something nobody wants. This raises several important questions:

• How often have you faced unforeseen performance issues, even after completing your regular database maintenance tasks?
• Have you wondered why tasks like index rebuilding and statistics updates are sometimes insufficient?
• If everything was running smoothly before, why has performance suddenly declined?
• Why are indexes not being utilised as expected? Should more indexes be created?

The answer to many of these questions often lies in stale statistics. It's essential to remember that statistics contain vital information that the SQL Optimiser uses to generate optimal execution plans for queries. If these statistics are outdated, the impact on performance can be severe. Simply having the right indexes isn’t enough if the statistics are stale.