examining tran logs is not for the faint hearted, however I'm slightly interested on why you consider this a misery, there seem to have been a number of posts about...

The sql server 2000 performance tuning technical reference contains details on this. Generally though you try to get the most bang for your buck when buying a server.

have always used backup and restore ( lite speed with larger databases or where capacity and performance is an issue ). Use replication sometimes, but replicated databases can present their own...

that's what I'm hoping for .. ( breaking in CLR ) keep me employed into old age! 

As an aside I have to say in my main role of performance tuning...

actually I have seen ( been part of ) some good team training at work ( I'm not actually convinced it produced the desired effect, however&nbsp

I don't think much of your DBA's, are they actually SQL Server DBAs or just assuming that job title?  A DBA should be helping you solve the problem, that's what...

I think we probably all have good and bad experiences throughout our working lives. The view of a good manager is subjective, those working for a manager will have one...

Jeff - a 50 step job is not the answer as you will have to alter the job to cope with additions or subtractions  and you'd still need a loop...

yup wrong proc plans can be a pain - try adding a with recompile to the proc and see if the problem goes away ( as a test - I...

Sorry .. bit slow on picking up the replies .. ok cursor vs while -- what i found was the while tended to bind the whole process into one transaction...

you could put your trace database into simple recovery, that may help. Buy more disks.

generally its v 2187 which is sp4 + post sp4 rollup. as always available from microsoft.

I still think you should publish the vendor name - modified ms procs now too!

sorry just thinking - especially considering new owners - redgates sql and data compare will allow you to compare a database - yes there may be soem data changes but...

verify does not verify the backup only the backup file header. There is only one way to verify a backup and that is restore it, that's one reason so many...