Prior to SQL 2012, the shrinkfile operation is single-threaded and is kept to a single CPU, you can't do much to speed it up other than ensure you are running...

Let's rule out a security/permissions issue. On the DEV box, create the linked server using the script below, specifying either domain account that has appropriate access on both servers,...

For what its worth I've always encountered similar issues with replication alerts not firing, unless I manually scripted it out in TSQL, setting the "@shouldalert = 1"

When done via the...

You could handle this two ways: 1) Create a trigger AFTER UPDATE to update the record as needed, or 2) Handle the change via your VB.Net code.

I'd probably opt for...

Sounds like a permissions issue between the service account from DEV to PROD - are they the same?

Can you post your scripts for both the DEV and PROD server?

All great points mentioned, so I'll contribute one last item: If you use multiple data files for TempDB, autogrowth should be avoided. As others have mentioned, it's best to...

If you were performing index maintenance it could be briefly possible, or if you were running a query within a transaction, it would have blocked any other user/process accessing your...

Idera SQL Diagnostic Manager also offers this - http://www.idera.com/productssolutions/sqlserver/sqldiagnosticmanager

(sorry Red Gate guys)

Fair point 🙂

For ease of use, I'd go with BCP. Which would you recommend?

If the source data isn't too "wide", BCP would work quite well, but I'd recommend using SSIS so you can take more advantage of simultaneous/parallel threads

Take a quick look through...

Can you provide further information? What is being blocked?

Of course, I was just matching the required output that the OP requested. This would need to be removed for a full result set. I liked your approach,...

Perhaps something like this?; WITH VisitTypes AS (

SELECT PatientID, VisitType, ROW_NUMBER() OVER ( PARTITION BY PatientID, VisitType ORDER BY VisitDate) AS Cnt, VisitDate

FROM #visit_info_table

) SELECT TOP 2...

I believe Gail is referring to SQL Server-related types, for example (PAGELATCH_EX, ASYNC_NETWORK_IO, CXPACKET, and so forth).

Okay, RAID-10. To push a little further - how many spindles are making...

Both old and new server used some type of RAID configuration. The network guy said the RAID on the new server should be more efficient. The new server...