Excellent advice, GilaMonster; Thanks! We haven't moved to log shipping (yet) but when we do your insight will come in handy!

My solution for maintenance that is to occur during "scheduled downtime" (such as index rebuilding that causes the log to grow substantially) is to have steps in the job that...

There is a proper time and procedure for every matter, though a man's misery weighs heavily on him (Ecclesiates). Each of the options listed in the original post have...