No idea if transactions are suspended, but I don't think so. Haven't seen significant slowdowns during log backups.

The start would be the last checkpoint if there are no active transactions,...

Backup is at point of time it is started. If you make a change while the backup is running, the pages that need to be changed will be grabbed and...

Martin has a good situation there. It's mainly for events that aren't regular, some non-standard event that causes an unusual growth, such as a data load.

Used to run BMC's Patrol. Worked ok, very expensive, not sure I liked it.

When I managed DB2 guys, they swore by Spotlight and used it all the time.

1 and 2 - sysdepends. It can be out of date, but Red Gate software has a tool to help you determine this.

3 - you can search in syscomments for...

Once you get 4GB, you can just let SQL run. I never see it run above 1.8GB.

I'd give it at least that much and you should be better off.

Sorry, I have no idea. I was in the corporate side of things and so didn't work with movement of the product. Plus we never looked at migrating anything off...

In SQL Server 2000 or 2005?

Whichever you are more comfortable with. For your own work, or with a small group, I don't think it matters much. For 2005, since most things are SMO NET assemblies,...

I wish I had a full fledged test system. Maybe I should ask Andy and Brian for one for Christmas next year

Insert it like any other field at first. To update/rewrite, you'll want to search on this site for WRITETEXT.

If you use with TRUNCATE_ONLY, you need an immediate full backup.

This is difficult to do in T-SQL. Recursion is an option and works well in 2005, but I'm wary of it in 2000, plus you might hit a nesting limit.

Check...

Ah, many people use multiple publications and it works well. Andy has a large box with over 200 dbs, and runs quite a few replications from one master db to...

http://www.sqlservercentral.com/columnists/sjones/atemporarymove.asp