I think when you say "lean" you really are referring to normalized, and I do recommend normalizing tables that have a high number of write operations.

Tables with high number of...

Without seeing your setup, the full text of the error message, or knowing anything about the setup, I am making a LOT of assumptions below.

But if I remember right, error...

I don't see why you couldn't capture the data with XE.  Create the XE session to capture the data you want, have it save it to file or table or...

I thought it was a joke, but I've learned (the hard way) to never assume that people are joking 🙂

And I think you should be good to go then!  Good...

I just read through the code and to me I think what I said above should be correct.

The only thing is you will likely need to open the master key...

I am 99% sure you just need to restore the database as the DMK will come across with it.  Once you do that, it depends on how you were accessing...

I think the big questions that come to mind are:

1 - are you fully patched?

2 - is the latest .NET installed?

3 - how are you calling the linked server?  Is...

To me it looks like it isn't a SQL Server issue, but something with "PIPC" or "pisdk".  Not sure what those are, but google makes it look like it is...

There is a lot of area to go with your question.  Not seeing high CPU, memory, or disk queue may or may not tell you much.  For example, if your...

Looks like a permission related error to me.  Since it works with the local account, it is probably configured to allow that account to view contents (browse at a minimum),...

Personally, this feels like a job for powershell, not SQL Server.

Just because SQL Server CAN do it, doesn't mean it SHOULD do it.

SQL Server is a database engine and you...

As a thought - are you sure it is the conversion that is causing the slowness?

What I mean is what if you take out the INSERT INTO statement and just...

I am not certain on the default trace, but I think you could set up an XE session to capture that.

How is the tool running the drop script?  I am...

Everything you listed plus support and more features (SSRS, SSAS, SSIS, etc) and scalability.

Commercial tools, in general, should perform better than the free tools when properly configured.  An improperly configured...

SSDT, if I remember right, allows for a lot of different things you can do with it including, but not limited to, SSRS, SSIS, SSAS, etc.

Knowing what type of project...