1. push don't pull file copies - e.g copy to and not copy from.

2. I always use robocopy

3. make sure the server advanced settings it optimised for programs and not...

in truth unless you have a specific issue, maybe a 100TB database for instance, all you need to know is that the backup occurs. It's well documented about how the...

I make extensive use of partitioning here's a presentation I did about one aspect of it. http://www.grumpyolddba.co.uk/gonein60ns/GoneIN60nsWeb.pdf I have another document on partitioning but haven't put it onto my...

could you clarify what it is you want to know?

there's nothing to stop you having a 5 node cluster with 4 active. The theory is that the "passive" node should support all "active" nodes, but reality is that this...

Could I suggest a visit to the clustering pages in technet/msdn.

For a ( windows ) cluster ( of any flavour ) you need a minimum of two physical servers (...

I guess then that you are not using stored procedures?

I've looked at a couple of apps we have which don't use procs and I notice that often plan reuse just...

ah - that's the one limitation with the switching - I always wish you could switch to another database! You're still stuck with the delete/copy.

What you need is a...

oops - sorry keeping o/s the same? I'm not 100% sure if you can install sql 2008 R2 on windows 2003, and why would you want to keep an o/s...

I'd suggest you don't, experience has shown that inplace upgrades are good in certain circumstances but not for production systems.

I'd suggest you evict a node, rebuild it, migrate your databases,...

depending upon your recovery model the t-log will clear periodically or with your backups. a checkpoint will help but an open transaction will stop the log clearing from before the...

you should set the max memory to a figure you're happy with. The actual value would depend upon the o/s and the box but on an average server I...

I'd suggest you examine BOL for details of the dmvs. Or you could buy the "Inside SQL" books or there's also "SQL ServerDMVs in action" by Ian W Stirk which...

tempdb does not work the same way as a user database. #tables may be created in memory if resource is available.

There's nothing within SQL to do this as the dmvs get cleared on a restart. As suggested unless you buy a monitoring tool you can only record a database availability...