Thanks Paul, very illuminating.

That will really help when we're looking at reasons to upgrade to SQL2k8 instead of SQL2k5. I hadn't thought of testing on an empty table: I'd...

The relationship between partitioning and performance depends very much on the queries being executed (as per everything else to do with SQL Server, and all other DBMSs: I wish I...

We get all our servers supplied with mirrored local system drives, so we always use your option 1 below.

Our reason for doing it this way is that if the system...

This is a classic "It Depends" question. The usage of the databases is going to vary, in particular the rate of data growth and data changes and whether that...

The statistics are really important for the query optimiser. The rebuild index job will update them for your indices but the non-indexed fields can be important too. We've...

Are there any other applications than SQL Server running on the server (eg. IIS, Reporting Services, Analysis Services, etc.)? SQL Server itself is fine but from the page faults...

What you're seeing is exactly what I would expect to see.

At a simplified level, when the SQL Server service starts it will ask Windows to allocate whatever the minimum memory...

I always look at the date/time of the files at the OS level. These are updated to the last time the SQL Server service was started, but after that...

When a restore starts the appropriate flag is set in sys.databases (or sysdatabses on SQL2k). This shows in MS/EM as (Restoring) after the database name.

If necessary, it then resizes...

I've always found it easier to understand/read to use the FLOOR and CEILING functions when specific rules are required when shortening numbers with specific rules. If necessary add a...

Litespeed definitely does support splitting a backup over multiple files: we use it that way for several of our large production databases. Just specify multiple ",@file = '...'" clauses...

I don't have any categoric proof that it does or doesn't, but it's what I would expect for a non-indexed field that can only have two values (plus null of...

You're right Mark; what you're describing is going to perform sub-optimally because it's going to behave like a fragmented disk. If you've got the space/budget you would get the...

The only time we've used a second log file is due to temporary space issues immediately prior to a large transaction. We removed it as soon as practical afterwards,...

If your SAN is properly configured it will mask a lot of the issues of having the data and logs co-located.

However, the way the two types of files are accessed...