depends on the size of your databases, availability requirements and other tasks

generally though i run a defrag and checkdb every weekend (with the exception of our 600Gb database) and nightly...

you say 14 disk configured in a raid 5 array? i think this might be the problem

we have a similar set up for a 600Gb database and have it set...

select isnull(value,0) in your sql code would do the job

is this for a single excercise (like a data load) and won't do agin (hopefully) or is it something that you ned to build into a procedure for constant re-use?

Ah,

i see

in that case might i suggest

select a.userlogin, isnull(a.address1,b.address1),isnull(a.zipcode,b.zipcode)..... from database1 a inner join database2 b on a.userlogin=b.userlogin

might be a little simpel, but it depends on having nulls...

I might be missing the point here, but a simple union query can do this

select * from server1.mydatabase.dbo.mytable

UNION

select * from server1.mydatabase.dbo.mytable

all the results are combined and issued as a single...

Maxdop really depends on your application and your server setup. usually maxdop is set to use all processors and can be left on that setting.

i have come acrosss instances where...

then i'll go with what allen says - what is the recovery mode of the database

you can find it out by runing

sp_helpdb or clicking on the properties option...

It should be

I'm not sure you can do it with "ALTER TABLE x ALTHR COLOUMN y NOT FOR REPLICATION

but you can do it through enterprise manager - go to...

does that database exist?

is it sent in offline mode?

is this a maintenance plan for all user databases, or for specifically named databases

Separate arrays is best

Raid 1+0 array for data and mirrored for your log files

try and avoid raid 5 arrays if you can (write overhead is costly)

also place your tempdb on...

i'd suggest looking at sql agent. are you doing t-log backups every 30 minutes? is the laptop a subscriber (or publisher) for replication?

backing up sheduled tasks is done by backing up the msdb database as allen suggested

moving these jobs is a nightmare!! it all depends on what the jobs are.

try and match your query criteria to the same order as your compound index order, as the qeuery optimiser should be more likely to pick it up and (for the...

i agree - post us a few lines of data with a creat table statement

but your code will look something like

create procedure USP_GETMYDATA as

declare @todayscount integer

set @todayscount=(select count(*)...