Related question: On occasion, SQL Configuration shows an error when I click on the SQL Server Services node, or fails to start SQL Server, but I am able to...

Is there anything relevent in the Windows Application Log?

Obviously the bext option is to identify any connections that exist and shut them off from the originating end. If that is not possible (in an evironment I manage that...

I would ask them if they are familair with the English idiom "bait and switch."

Then Right-Click Database Mail/View Database Mail Log and see if there's an error that holds clues. In my expereince, when I can't send a test message it's one...

FYI, I've implemented Database Mail on a lot of instances recently and I've never had to restart SQLAgent (caveat: these were mostly 2005, 2008 and 2008 R2 instances).

Assuming you can...

I've had no issues connecting to older instances with SSMS 2012. There must be something different in the configuration of the instances that make it crash. If you...

I've installed SQL Server 2008 R2 and 2012 using install sets from different sources and I've noticed that some have the product key already entered and some are blank and...

Good point about SSIS. Is SSIS 2012 compatible with SQL 2008 R2? In other words can SSIS 2012 run packages created in VS 2008 to load data...

This isn't a migration - at least after the initial pull. There's going to be a daily extract of records created the previous day in a MySQL-hosted system which...

A short term solution might be to configure maximum data and log files sizes to the disk can't fill up. You'll still have problems, but at least the...

I can't imagine why you'd want to make two backups concurrently. If there is a need to have the ability to quickly restore to two separate, but close, points in...

Assuming that some (hopefully many) rows are deleted before there are actually 2 billion of them, once the wrap-around event occurs will the IDENTITY feature use the next UNUSED integer,...

Can you successfully send a test email from SSMS my right-clicking Database Mail and selecting Send Test Email?

I've seen errors like this when there are anti-virus or anti-spam settings in place on the local server or email server. Ask your OS, AV and email server people...