don't know if it helps, but when i went to install SQL 2008, I had to upgrade my existing Visual Studio 2008 to SP1 before it would allow itself to...

the forum doesn't like things that look like html tags....wierd results occur, like the clickable button above, which got rendered as an object instead of text:

i had to find and...

I googled for the specific error you said you are getting, and couldn't find anything specific;one post said they simply stopped and started their SQL service and agent, adn that...

just looking for confirmation...i used my google-fu and found info and examples for using hashbytes with SHA1, ie

select HASHBYTES('SHA1','My Plain Text')

--results

0x6D99DDF6FE7A32547B6766E0BF88B1F50835F0FF

everything i read says that this is a one way...

too many variables; show us your current vbscripts, and we can offer suggestions. most likely, it's nothing more than reading recordset values into some local vbscript variables, and writing...

i guess your vbscripts are creating a connection and querying each server, right?

there's an excellent MS article on this kind of info:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/321185

vasically it suggests this as the query:

SELECT SERVERPROPERTY('productversion'),...

i ran this test below...he's right...if you had a column defined as char(200), for example, stuck data in it, then changed the column to varchar(200), the datalength is still 200...even...

Adi I read the requirement as he alreyad changed the columns from char to varchar, and now wanted to remove trailing spaces:

Note, the length of the data type should not...

so you just need a script to dynamically create the UPDATE TABLENAME SET COLNAME = RTRIM(COLNAME) script, correct?

something like this:

SELECT 'UPDATE [' + object_name(object_id) + '] SET ['...

your script is missing parameters for the call:

http://www.sqldev.net/xp/xpsmtp.htm#Usage

here's an example on the syntax:

- ************************************************************************

-- more comprehensive example

-- ************************************************************************

declare @rc int

exec @rc = master.dbo.xp_smtp_sendmail

@FROM ...

google was my friend on this one:

searched for "SLA example" an these are the first two that seemed relevant to me:

http://articles.techrepublic.com.com/5100-10878_11-1048632.html

http://www.4-consulting.com/it-projects2/4CL_SLA.htm

yeah, with large amounts of data, usually what happens is the data is copied into your servers tempdb, manipulated, and then the answer is returned.

whenever possible, you should use OPENQUERY...

you can prevent certain logins from having access to any linked servers you create, but not by IP address; typically, if you want to block IP's you do...

depends on what you are trying to accomplish when you say "alternatives to a linked server"...gather data from sources outside of your server is probably what you mean, right?

linked servers...

it sounds like this was your order of operations, and explains why when you restore, you lose your keys:

1. created the database.

2. create the table

3. backed up the database

4. added...