First, you mean SQL Server 2008 R2. SQL Server 2008 is a completely separate product. If you confuse this, you might find yourself in a lot of trouble.

I don't see...

Fundamental architeture. SQL Server has multiple database per instance, Oracle doesn't. Understanding some of the layout of the internals is helpful.

Backups - Make sure you have a solid grounding of...

I agree with Sean in terms of the GUID. If you have a good reason, use them, if not, use an identity.

If you're worried about data size in a column,...

First, why do you want to reduce the size? Is it too large based on the transactions that occur?

What's the log file size and what's the peak log backup size...

I like what Guras has done. You never know what jobs will change, and you might not want new jobs disabled. Or maybe you do, but if you want specific...

I was cursing a printer a couple years ago, maybe 5, and checking settings, looking for drivers, etc. After 30 min, my wife asked me if I'd checked the cable.

RS-232...

GSquared (12/1/2011)

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My wife and I are celebrating our 21st anniversary today. As part of that, I'm taking next week off of work (my third vacation since 1988), and probably...

Good luck. Two weeks to cram.

I don't know of any free tools that do the monitoring that is like SQL Monitor. There are some that do some baselining and capturing of information on Codeplex, but...

Once you've removed mirroring (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms189112%28v=SQL.90%29.aspx), you can just restore both dbs and re-setup mirroring.

paul.knibbs (11/30/2011)

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Anyway, I actually prefer to prune my e-mails while I'm away so I have fewer to go through on my return to work...it just stresses me out if I...

Me either, until I got a...

Very nice!

The question now reader:

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Assuming you have a database called playpen on SQL Server 2008 and above, what is the resul of the select statement in the following code?

use playpen

go

begin

declare

...

Grumpy DBA (11/30/2011)

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Steve - Where did you go riding? I'm taking my family to Breck in a couple of months (first time snowboarding in CO), any tips you can...