Good One.

Good to see recent questions on BI/DW.

Detach / Attach will not work on Stand by / Read only database.

What you are trying to achieve?

Not an easy one. But good QotD.

I have used ignite and good for performance perspective i.e. long running queries.

In addition resource of the server too may be affected i.e. CPU, MEMORY, I/O etc.

Nice question, Steve.

What do you mean by takes forever? I guess very very slow?

howmuch is the size of the database? Try restore using creating job and check? What are the other...

Yes, Firewall is culprit most of the time. 🙂

Check this out

http://connect.microsoft.com/SQLServer/feedback/details/320955/backup-maintenance-plan-involving-snapshot-database

Good one.

There are multiple ways...

1. If possible change the execution timings if there are more than one jobs or proc executed at same time. Or

2. If possible use nolock option...

Find out which process is taking more CPU utilization. Memory looks ok.

Nice question. +1

Though searching for check box instead of radio button.

Good one! help to sharpen Replication skill... recalling old memories 🙂