Another common problem when scheduling DTS jobs is file permissions.  A good way to debug these is to log on using the SQL Agent account and run your DTS from...

You really need a DR server with similar disk capacity to your main server.  The staff cost of working out how (and proving it works) or doing your DR in...

It may be old but it is still valid...

"SQL Server is wonderful... it inherits all the scalability, reliability and security of Windows"

Each transaction log backup contains only the log information that was created following the previous transaction log backup.  Transaction log backups are only valid when the database is in Full...

1) Cross-check field sizes.  In particular Integer can mean 2-byte or 4-byte in different systems.  Most Cobol and DB2 data types map well to SQL data types apart from date...

If you are using EM, the default path for saving script files is the 'My Documents' path.  You can change this to some other value by right-clicking the My Documents icon...

Don't forget to think outside the (SQL) box.

Many sites use a disk replication product such as Double-Take or SAN replication to copy their SQL data to another site.  In this scenario...

You can use Cast or Convert to specify a given date format.  If you want to do anything more then Convert gives you, then do it in .Net code.  It...

Beware of allocating multiple files to the same filegroup if they will be on the same disks, especially if you are already having I-O problems.  Wintel servers often have limited...

This needs to be driven by the business.  If there are no formal SLAs agreed, then this must be the first step.  When you have a written and signed-off document...

Big is as big does.  Back in 2000 I was involved in some work for the UK Land Registry.  Back then their main system was growing at about 10 GB...

I have no issues with the concept of consolidating multiple production instances on to fewer servers. Likewise multiple test instances could be consolidated to few (non-production!) servers.  If you look...

The best advice is: stop shrinking tempdb!!

You should plan to have a Tempdb that is large enough for your workload.  If it needs 20GB then plan for 20GB.  On our...

Talk to your System Admin people.  It is likely they will have a preferred method of deployment so they can support the boxes.  If you add software outside of the...

I know that with some operating systems, if you store data using a different collation from wher it is processed or displayed, this forces a collation conversion process.  Even where source...