Please try this 🙂 :

SET DATEFORMAT dmy

SELECT CAST('20120524' AS datetime)

SELECT CAST('2012-05-24' AS datetime)

The universally accepted date format for SQL Server is "YYYYMMDD" (as in 20120524), not YYYY-MM-DD, which different installations will treat differently (and some will error out).

SQL itself won't allow you to restore an older master db (not sure about the model db, but it likely doesn't contain critical data anyway). Something else must be...

Partitioning could indirectly help performance, as follows:

-- make it possible/faster to rebuild/reorg current yr's data only;

-- each partition can be separately specified as uncompressed/compressed (SQL 2008+ only).

Exactly Paul; well put.

I gotta say, those two statements seem contradictory 🙂 or you're on a terribly...

Either one.

Adding a rowversion column to every table would indeed be huge overhead for no real gain, since it likely would never be used. Eight bytes per row would...

True. I didn't explicitly mention it, but I meant using standard/approved methods, such as generating the legit commands:

CREATE LOGIN

EXEC sp_addlinkedserver

etc..

With the old master db there, you could get (almost)...

You should be able to restore the master db to a different db name, if you want to pull data from the old master db directly in the SQL 2008...

I didn't object to doing it on ONE table.

I merely pointed out that for SQL to try to do that on all tables, as a default, as it were, would...

Yes, cluster the table by date and/or employee; choose the column(s) and the order based on your other query needs.

Typically the clustered index...

Yes, that can be done.

It's easier with linked servers but possible even without.

Do you have a Linked Server defined between the servers? Or do you prefer not to have...

For an actual SQL job, SQL itself records that info.

Look in msdb.dbo.sysjobhistory.

To get the job name, join...

No. Maintaining that on all tables would be a huge sacrifice of performance for no real gain.

You're still fine. SQL will add an integer counter itself so it can tell the rows apart. It's some slight overhead but it's not a real issue.

If you...