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Day: November 11, 2026

Four Years of sp_CheckSecurity

Published 2026-11-11 by Kevin Feasel

Jeff Iannucci reflects on a tool:

In recent weeks I’ve been conducting a bit more of our own internal SQL Server Security Checks than usual for our clients. This shouldn’t be a surprise, what with all the stories about “rouge AI” breaches and with Microsoft releasing A LOT more security fixes in their recent Windows and SQL Server updates.

In all these Security Checks we use our sp_CheckSecurity stored procedure to collect a big chunk of the findings. I wrote the original version of this tool a while back, and out of curiosity I wanted to see how long ago that was. It turns out I created the first working version of the tool four years ago this week. Wow, four years! And the things that I have found using that tool could, as my late stepfather might say, make your eyes water.

Inspired by my colleague Andy Kelly’s post introducing the sp_CheckActivity tool that he’s been working on in various forms for years, I thought I would share a bit about the history and intention of sp_CheckSecurity in a similar manner.

Read on for its origin story. Between what Jeff has put together and what Andreas Wolter has created, there are two really good procedures for evaluating the security posture of a given SQL Server instance.

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Building a Python API atop SQL Server Data

Published 2026-11-11 by Kevin Feasel

Hristo Hristov builds an API:

SQL Server and its cloud cousin Azure SQL are among the most popular relational database management systems. Data hosted in SQL Server sometimes need be securely exposed to outside services and applications. How to build an application programming interface (API) layer that securely exposes data stored in SQL Server to downstream services or consumers?

The example here uses FastAPI in Python, which is a good choice for a simple API layer. Regardless of the exact tooling or programming language you use, there’s a lot to proper API design, documentation, versioning, security, and optimization.

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Optimizing DAX with AI

Published 2026-11-11 by Kevin Feasel

Marco Russo and Alberto Ferrari speed up operations:

The debate over whether AI will replace human work is heating up. However, our vision is different: AI is not a replacement; it is a powerful tool, and when AI and humans work together on a problem, the outcome is better than when either works on their own.

Optimizing DAX is a fascinating task. However, in the process of optimizing DAX, you need to pay attention to several details:

  • The new formula needs to be equivalent to the old one; this requires extensive testing.
  • The shape of the query being executed matters: a formula may be better than another in a specific test, but not in others.
  • The data distribution matters: a database with 100K customers and 100M transactions requires a different optimization compared to one with 10K customers and 10B transactions.

You will often get about as much out of using generative AI tools as you are willing to put in. This article does a good job of showing that.

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Thoughts on Blog Relevance

Published 2026-11-11 by Kevin Feasel

I’m at PASS Summit this week, so it’s a good thing Jeff Iannucci teed up a topic for me. Jeff, of course, has the honor of putting together the full round-up, but this topic has drawn quite a bit of interest and I get to link to a lot of people.

Andy Brownsword has thoughts on who your reader is, and how that has shifted over the years.

Niko Neugebauer answers in the negative but adds a few caveats.

Mike Walsh says they are, so long as you’re willing to take the time and effort.

Reitse Eskens says yes, especially for the writer.

Marlon Ribunal says yes, and that AI assistance can make the experience better.

Brent Ozar thinks about how relevance has shifted and brings up a good point about managers: blogs provide a signal of your quality to people, including the people who might hire you.

Chad Callihan asks, what’s in it for you?

Mala Mahadevan focuses on a critical aspect: originality. Not necessarily in topic, but in how you present information and what questions you’re asking.

Rob Farley sees writing as more relevant than reading.

Lee Markum uses illicit cat technology to brainwash people into reading his blog. And also has some good thoughts on the relative cost of blogging versus other skill-sharing activities.

Andy Yun takes a trip down memory lane.

Andy Levy digs into history as well, and notes where human experiences can augment (or supplant) technical documentation.

In short, this might amaze you, but most bloggers think that blogging is still relevant.

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