Just curious - but what was the allocation unit used when the drive was formatted?

The problem is your destination table is actually a HEAP - and you are deleting.  The delete does not free up allocated space on the table and the next insert...

You can use this technique: https://www.codeproject.com/Articles/22055/Automated-File-Decryption-Using-GnuPG-and-C

Instead of creating a batch file and executing the batch file - you redirect the input and output to variables.  Another option is to use...

You would have to restore a backup as another database and remove/encrypt sensitive data.

Normally though, this would be handled in the BAA with specified non-disclosures defined in the contract.  The...

Just be aware that if you enable it - you *must* set a max memory for SQL Server.  If you do not set the max memory then SQL Server will...

Backup/Restore is actually a good option - but you need to do a couple of things.

1. On go-live day, restore from the latest available backup on the 2016 instance -...

This is an older article that explains troubleshooting scheduler and yielding: https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/psssql/2018/04/05/troubleshooting-sql-server-scheduling-and-yielding/

You can start here to review the DMV's associated with SQL Server Operating System: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/relational-databases/system-dynamic-management-views/sql-server-operating-system-related-dynamic-management-views-transact-sql?view=sql-server-2017

Here is a general outline:...

It is not recommended that you setup a read-only secondary as an automatic failover.  In fact - I would not recommend using a read-only secondary as part of an HA...

Alerts don't need a job... they will fire based on the condition.

If you have something like Netscaler available - you could setup an external IP and name that is SSL enabled.  The entry would be setup with SSL offload - which...

Just an FYI - but everything that batch files does can be done in SSIS.

For FTP/sFTP - you can use WinSCP and a script component to download files.

For ZIP files...

Inserts can be a problem if you are inserting multiple rows in a single statement.

There is no guarantee that the inserts will be performed in identity order unless you specifically...

Are there any deletes?  Are there any updates that increase the size of VARCHAR columns?  Are there any batch inserts of more than 1 row?

All of these operations can create...

I have performed this same operation multiple times - and the only time I have ever had any issues is when a transaction log backup was performed after the full...

The problem is the transaction log backups on the primary.  Between the time you performed the diff and restored to the secondary there was at least one tlog backup on...