Blog

• The Index Allocation Map (IAM)

  

  2014-04-02 - General, Series, SQL Server Internals, Storage Wednesday

  SQL Server tracks the pages that belong to an allocation unit through special index allocation map pages, also called IAM pages. Each IAM page covers a single GAM-interval of the database file. All IAM pages of a single allocation unit together build an IAM-chain. Read on to find out more.

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• Salt – Preventing Rainbow Attacks against Password Stores

  

  2014-03-31 - Cryptographic Terminology, Cryptography, General, Security, Series

  What is a Salt Value and how does it help to protect the stored passwords of your application’s users from attacks involving Rainbow Tables? Read on to find out now.

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• Cryptographic Hash Functions

  

  2014-03-30 - Cryptographic Terminology, Cryptography, General, Security, Series

  Hash functions calculate a fixed length binary digest of a document. Read on to see what additional requirements turn an ordinary hash function into a cryptographic hash function and what use cases require the use of cryptographic hash functions.

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• Certificates and the Chain of Trust

  

  2014-03-28 - Cryptographic Terminology, Cryptography, General, Security, Series

  Certificates are containers for asymmetric encryption keys that can be used to establish a chain of trust between communicating parties. Read on to see how this works in practice.

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• Presentation Materials: Permission Management – 12 Pitfalls & Misconceptions

  

  2014-03-26 - Presentations

  Your responsibilities as the DBA include the management of access permissions. To be able to live up to the expectation that you will be able to secure the data, you must know the 12 Pitfalls & Misconceptions that we will talk about in this session.

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• The Allocation Unit

  

  2014-03-26 - DMVs & CVs, General, Series, SQL Server Internals, Storage Wednesday

  SQL Server groups all pages that belong to a single partition of a single index or heap into logical units. These units are called allocation units. Read on to learn about the different types of allocation units and discover how to identify the allocation units belonging to a table.

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• Asymmetric Key Encryption

  

  2014-03-24 - Cryptographic Terminology, Cryptography, General, Security, Series

  Asymmetric key encryption (aka public-key encryption) works with two separate keys, a public key to encrypt and a private key to decrypt. Read on to see the advantages and disadvantages of this type of encryption.

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• Symmetric Key Encryption

  

  2014-03-23 - Cryptographic Terminology, Cryptography, General, Security, Series

  A symmetric key encryption algorithm is a cryptographic algorithm the uses the same secret key for the encryption and the decryption step. Common examples include DES, RC4 and AES of which only AES can be recommended for use.

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• Cryptographic Terminology – A Glossary

  

  2014-03-21 - Cryptographic Terminology, Cryptography, Fundamentals, General, Security, Series

  Cryptographic terminology can be sometimes somewhat “cryptic”. This post starts out a series to provide a glossary of cryptographic terms. Each post in this series will cover one cryptographic expression in detail.

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• The Extent (A Storage Wednesday Post)

  

  2014-03-19 - General, Series, SQL Server Internals, Storage Wednesday

  SQL Server organizes database pages in groups of 8 called extents. An extent is the smallest unit that SQL Server will reserve on disk. However, smaller tables are still possible through mixed extents. Read on to get all the details.

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