> This database is in full recovery mode, but the client appears to only be attempting full nightly backups.

> I am hesitant to perform any further action until I understand...

Is the following an accurate rewrite of your requirement?

"For each ID, select the row with the lowest prim value"

If so, you're looking at a much simpler query, like:

WITH Names AS...

That's a meaningless alert, in my opinion. Unless it has some description documented elsewhere,...

Is there a Wait Type listed? What's the full message?

A "waiting" thread is simply one that isn't doing anything. For example, the lazywriter thread is usually waiting for something...

What if you read the page with the error:

DBCC TRACEON(3604);

DBCC...

Here's a link to download Microsoft's guide for licensing virtualized environments:

http://download.microsoft.com/download/3/D/4/3D42BDC2-6725-4B29-B75A-A5B04179958B/MicrosoftServerVirtualization_LicenseMobility_VLBrief.pdf

There's a specific section for core-based licensing SQL Server on VMs.

-Eddie

The syntax error can be fixed by adding a table alias to the first derived table (shown beloaw as [PivotSource]):

SELECT group_1Digit, group_2Digit, group_3Digit, chart_code, desc_text,

AA, CL, ED, FB,...

Step #1: ensure any process that deletes old backup files is killed and blocked...

sys.dm_os_sys_info is a good place to start.

-Eddie

The Salesforce Marketing Cloud, specifically the part of it that was ExactTarget until...

That is a feature that's set to be included in SQL Server 2016 as part of PolyBase:

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-US/library/mt143171.aspx

Or, instead of scripting, dropping, and then recreating the index, you can simply disable the index (which drops the storage but keeps the definition), and the just rebuild the index...

I'm not sure about SQL Server 2012, but with versions prior, old stats on tables with 1 billion+ rows would cause shocking CPU consumption during compilation.

Once stats get updated,...

Check the write times to the transaction log file. You'd like those at or under 1ms if possible. If you're pushing past 4ms, then you may want to look at...

Have you considered simply adding the two new servers to the cluster first?

Then just install SQL/zone in storage/etc as if you're growing the cluster. When done, you can validate the...