Step #1: ensure any process that deletes old backup files is killed and blocked...

sys.dm_os_sys_info is a good place to start.

-Eddie

The Salesforce Marketing Cloud, specifically the part of it that was ExactTarget until...

That is a feature that's set to be included in SQL Server 2016 as part of PolyBase:

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-US/library/mt143171.aspx

Or, instead of scripting, dropping, and then recreating the index, you can simply disable the index (which drops the storage but keeps the definition), and the just rebuild the index...

I'm not sure about SQL Server 2012, but with versions prior, old stats on tables with 1 billion+ rows would cause shocking CPU consumption during compilation.

Once stats get updated,...

Check the write times to the transaction log file. You'd like those at or under 1ms if possible. If you're pushing past 4ms, then you may want to look at...

Have you considered simply adding the two new servers to the cluster first?

Then just install SQL/zone in storage/etc as if you're growing the cluster. When done, you can validate the...

Short answer: yes. Full database backups and differential database backups do NOT break the transaction log chain.

Also, if your crash did not destroy the transaction log and you can...

Being an Availability Group, you can also take backups from the replicas. Transaction log backups should still come from the primary replica, as this is the only way to clear...

If you know when the backups are kicked off, then you know when to look and see what application/host is running the BACKUP DATABASE command. Look with Activity Monitor or...

Define 'high load', and your need to load balance. Individual SQL Servers can handle billions of batches per day. Storage is usually the bigger bottleneck.

Sharding your data allows you...

A quick check of the function's source :

USE master;

GO

EXEC sp_helptext 'fn_varbintohexstr';

GO

Reveals the source code:

create function sys.fn_varbintohexstr

(

@pbinin varbinary(max)

)

returns nvarchar(max)

as

begin

return sys.fn_varbintohexsubstring(1,@pbinin,1,0)

end

OK, that...

A terrific blog for reading the details found in sys.dm_os_ring_buffers (including the query you seek) may be found here:

https://bwunder.wordpress.com/2012/07/29/monitoring-and-troubleshooting-with-sys-dm_os_ring_buffers/

-Eddie

Offhand, I'd suggest trying a DDL trigger on the CREATE DATABASE event (note that attaching fires 'CREATE DATABASE ... FOR ATTACH'), and see if that catches it.

If so, you can...