No where near enough information. There's not...

Define: 'not working properly'

What's the purpose of partitioning? What do you expect to achieve?

1 and 2: Google backup log SQL Server

3: Google index data physical order (and be prepared to weed out the true from the false). Rather weird interview question.

If that's the error you're getting, refer to the section in that article on SQL being unable to access the error log. Last section iirc

See if this helps, or at least lets you narrow down the cause: http://www.simple-talk.com/sql/backup-and-recovery/the-sql-server-instance-that-will-not-start/

Do a once-off shrink and then rebuild your indexes afterwards. Don't shrink to the minimum, leave some space free.

arrjay (1/3/2014)

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Hi John - I was going to allocate 7.2 gig (36 gig / 5 instances) to each database instance as thought this would be the most efficient way to...

arrjay (1/3/2014)

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I guess the reason for posting this in the first place is that I heard SQL will allocate all the memory to itself (allowing a small amount for OS...

VLFs only apply to log files.

No, there's no downside to having the TempDB data files (which I assume is what you were asking about) be larger than strictly necessary. It...

arrjay (1/2/2014)

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In terms of the database instances, I have installed SQL 5 times on the same server. This might not be called a database instance but I have 5...

Can you clarify what you mean by 'instance'?

Nope.

The optimal size for TempDB files is large enough that they don't have to grow under regular operations.

Implying that Management Studio is badly written (but we already knew that)...

Monitor it for a period of time, see what the particular counter you're interested in (logins/sec in this case)...

Yes.

A fact that I discovered the hard way the first time I...