The problem with documentation is that it will perpetually be out of date. And at the point that you need to reference something is when the process will have changed.

Ultimately...

What do you mean by document? Or what do you need?

I've done a few things. First, always name the backup for the database, type, and date/time of the backup.

Adventureworks_full_201109260100.bak

That allows...

Spent the weekend mostly doing misc chores and family stuff. Replaced a barn light, patched some cement, buried a irrigation hose, lots of work.

And unwired for the most part. Did...

Nope,...

Using scripts for changes is the best solution, hopefully scripts that someone else has looked at and include some error handling or checks for incorrect (or too many) changes to...

SQL Server queries the Windows host date/time. This is used for all it's internal time marking of events (trace, events, etc.) and it is returned by getdate() or SYSDATETIME()

What do you mean by modeling the extract and staging?

Staging is setting up tables that receive the data intermediately. You may or may not do this, but these tables usually...

Your sentence doesn't make sense. The SQL Server service account is the same Windows admin account that is running SQL?

It is possible to lock files/folders from Administrator. Just because...

Gooooooooooooooooooooooooooo Rays!

Search auditing on this site. We have numerous articles on the subject.

The structure of the new system is set, correct? If you have purchased it, then you have a schema and objects.

Migrating the data from an old system or a warehouse...

If you have this table:

create table mytable

( mychar nvarchar(4000)

, mytext ntext

)

then I can do this:

UPDATE dbo.mytable

SET mytext = mychar + CAST( mytext AS NVARCHAR(MAX))

That will concatenate the values...

Typically you create a forwarder to move mail from one system to another. Or a rule.

Maybe this will help: https://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=10957

not a master reference, but here's some history: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Password_Safe

I want to say that I read about it in one of his books. It was an initiative to try and get...

I haven't, but I also know a few security researchers find it secure. I don't have the time, nor the knowledge, to understand how to write a secure, strong encryption...