Spaghetti Code has already been mentioned. And it did/does exist (read legacy). An anecdote:

Many years ago I was hired at a firm to support the new...

This might help. There is a powershell script in the article.

http://www.databasejournal.com/features/mssql/article.php/3764516/Discover-SQL-Server-TCP-Port.htm

Select COALESCE(T1.State, 'String') as state

from table1 as T1

Server Objects -> Linked Servers. A query would look something like this.

SELECT *

FROM [My Linked Instance01].[Mydatabase].[dbo].[customer]

Good point! I never thought of it that way. We just do it like this because were lazy. 🙂

I lied we used to copy to the test server. We hace a nice fast SAN now!

This is the code from our restore to test server job. This...

Our production database is 266400.69 MB and a simple backup, copy to test server, restore on test works fine for us as a nightly job.

Use the Database Diagrammer built into Management Studio. Create a database. Expand it to see all the nodes. Right click on Database Diagrams. There wont be...

If you change the collation of a database only NEW data will be effected by that change. (Interesting!) You must move the data from DBa to DBb for...

2008 Standard runs nicely on XPsp2 and 3. I have an instance on this machine now. 2005 standard works too.

Having been a contractor the last 12 years, (But now a direct hire.) I would allow that I had been averaging n $ per hour when talking with the...

As a contractor for the $$$ I have been paid I would clean up the person's yard. Large canids in extent not withstanding.

Given that this is a question of...

You mention you 'have a button', given that, we must asume that someone wrote a program to do a restore of a sort. This would most likey be a...

Another way to 'hide' a server and it's databases from the general user is to change the port it is listening on.

'Hot-add CPUs require the 64-bit edition of Windows Server 2008 Datacenter or the Windows Server 2008 Enterprise Edition for Itanium-Based Systems operating system.'

When there is no correct answer to a...