Make sure that statistics are up to date (and auto gen is on). I'd also rebuild the indexes and run the application a few times. This will help you determine...

ANY tool will have to look at every query. Every bit of traffic to find what's offending.

You can limit Profiler to one database, even one type of batch (T-SQL and/or...

You can use ODBCPing or just connect with QA, SSMS, whatever, They'll run 1434 by default. Or you can specifically connect on that port to SalesDBServer with "SalesDBServer,1433" in the...

That's what I used to do! Back when we had 10Mbps NICs 🙂

We used a 192.168.2.xx network to the firewall for public access.

We had a 192.168.3.xx network to our...

You want to set tempdb to be at the size that it needs for the peak. Anything less can cause delays when tempdb grows. 1MB doesn't make sense.

Is is the same for all dates? Meaning hard coding different dates.

It's possible that there's a different level of selectivity and a different plan is used.

If you go to Enterprise Manager, you can check under the replication tab to see your publications. These are publishers. You can also check subscriptions. The publication properties will tell...

You cannot easily do this after the fact. Reading transaction logs will give you most of this, and there are numerous third party products to help here. They give you...

You're asking a lot here.

Profiler is free and does this. Use that. No one else will likely develop a stable tool that can do this without a cost.

I'm not sure what you mean. He doesn't want to open the port between the servers so they can communicate? This is a business case. If you need replication, you...

No blanket way, keep the permissions with the stored proc and include

...stored proc code...

go

grant execute on (procname) to (role)

go

in every stored procedure code. You should have this stuff under source...

As mentioned above, the log is still written. Typically this is one transaction (or relatively few of them) and they are cleared out. However if you have an open transaction,...

Look up CREATE DATABASE in Books Online. This will give you the options and scripts to build a database. Do not use autoclose, autoshrink in your databases. They cause issues.

How...

I'd follow Greg's idea, use an operator to send an alert when things finish.

Note that I think sending an email on "positive" completion is a bad idea. You'll get used...

DO NOT SHRINK!

This is bad, ruins your index rebuild and can cause fragmentation. That could be part of your problem.

Can you better define how you know things are slow or...