Under Win2k3 and below the cluster name is independent of the virtual name and the two must be different. The two names are used to address very different "aspects"...

On one of our SQL2k systems we had log-shipping set up for our 1TB database to a read-only copy so users could run reports against that copy: more-or-less what you've...

G'day Dan,

In answer to your questions:

1. To monitor the size of files use the "sys.files" DMV. To monitor the usage of files, I use "dbcc showfilestats".

2. "Zero-out"...

The most common reason for database file (not log file) expansion in a mature database is reindexing. As an index rebuild requires a new copy of the index to...

The other thing that will affect things is what the datatype is.

If your field is an int or other numeric datatype and you have the output sorted on that field,...

We've had similar requirements in the past that we've satisfied using a local version of MSDB (now fortunately replaced with SQL Server Express) and replicating to the central database(s).

The reference...

You don't mention what type of application this is, how big the database is nor the details of the OS. I haven't seen your specific issues myself, but from...

The other thing I haven't seen mentioned is the relative size of the data and log files and the recovery mode. If the database isn't already in Simple recovery...

I agree with Shinoj: a UNC path is definitely a better option than trying to maintain a specific drive mapping.

If you really want/have to use a drive mapping I'd include...

If a service pack or hotfix is going to make any change to a database it's only going to be the system objects that are affected. The system objects...

At the simplistic level shared memory will give the fastest performance when everything is running on the same server. You can set this up by adding an alias for...

Most definitely you do have to add the SQL Server service account as a SysAdmin after removing BUILTIN/Administrators.

That service account also needs rights to whatever it needs to access at...

As always, the answer is "It depends".

The effect on memory usage will be identical to that on disk usage. The change in definition of the field won't make any...

This is not really about whether the users connect using Windows or SQL Server authentication (although I'd support Microsoft's recommended best pracrtice in using Windows authentication only if possible) but...

An SQL2k/32 backup restored to an SQL2k5/x64 server is exactly the process we have used to migrate some of our databases, including some of our major systems. We have...