1) I should have said "backup master explicitly with the backup database command in the query window"

I've never heard that 2005 won't backup to UNC paths. I just checked, and I can do this no problem. So a couple things might be cause: ...

This only addresses one small facet: as for the failed backups being double in size, be sure the INIT option is used, otherwise the 2nd attempt will get appended...

I should have said this:

"But what I have not read anywhere is whether or not performance is similarly degraded by excessive autogrowths of data files which have already occurred in...

Vidha, Jeffrey, Steve: Thanks. I am confident what to do going forward, and agree with your suggestions. But that's not really the point of this posting. ...

I should have mentioned that while I believe this is a topic that applies equally to SQL 2000 and SQL 2005, and I'm keenly interested in both, my current focus...

I think in addition to SQL-specifics, general system (not SQL) admin and networking skills are very important. DBAs don't need to be able to replace the system/network admins working...

Thanks, that's nice to hear. We have implemented a couple more DBs with SQL 2005 encryption, and are still following these guidelines, all has worked very smoothly so far....

Thanks for posting this! Good work.

I just ran across it today. Results correlate very well with results from some other "worst performing procs" queries I run, and sure...

I'm not sure exactly what rights are required to write out to a text file, but I do know from experience that MS only left the view button in SSMS...

Not much here to go on. As long as your users have exec rights on the procs, they shouldn't even need permissions on the tables.

Debugging suggestions: ...

I'm currently firewalled from this site, so I can't tell if this will help. But you might try the wayback machine to see if they have what you're looking...

Although it appears both desirable, and doable...I've NEVER been able to get it to work this way. Every year I try again, see if either SQL or my environment...

I think you need the browser service for multiple or non-default instances, and it also helps with non-standard TCP/IP ports.

For SQL clusters, I like what you're planning to...

My interpretation of this is a) the error is timeout (query timeout or login timeout?), and b) it only happens when he connects to one of the servers with SSMS...