RVO (10/24/2012)
A comment to SSCrazy reply.Why it has to be acceptable for all applications to be down at the same time? What if we move databases slowly, one by one, to a new box?
Let's say today I am moving Citrix database at 7PM.
So I notify users that Citrix will be down for 3 hours, move database to a new SQL box, test Citrix with new connection string, done.
I don't have to restart or interrupt new SQL Server box.
So all other apps will continue to be up and running.
If you have to perform maintanance at the server level that requires SQL Server downtime, then all of the applications will be down.
"I don't have to restart or interrupt new SQL Server box."
Good luck on never having to restart.