how will they be created 'on the fly'?

if they are creted via t-sql scripting, you could add the code to setup the replication at the end of your create...

I would add the join here, instead of the where clause

FROM

...

even if you went with stored procedures you will still have to 'hard-code' the values somewhere. to me the opposite of hard-coding is to put the values in somewhere...

with a datetime it would be easy to work out what the most recent value, with characer field it would be more difficult do you have any columns that ...

is reportingperiod actually a char data type or is it a date data type?

This sounds like and ideal job for report parameters, without being able to use them i am not sure it is possible..

I would create a table called GroupName_codes or something and then put these values in there and restrict your qeury by using an inner join to this table, ...

I have to agree 20gb is not large at all - I would concentrate on getting enough space for a standard backup before worrying about any other options outlined

select name, min(id) , max(id)

from hp

group by name

Have a look at transactional replication (or possibly merge replication), this should work for you

you can either state the file name or the file id,

by using the filename then a comma and the file id it would mean that you are specifying...

backup the tail of the log and do a point in time resotre of your full backups and t-log backups prior to the point of the deletion

I would use a server side trace as this will catch every statement that has been issued against the database, rather than at the point you issue the dbcc statement

I would get them to run the query from their TOAD machine and then run a server side trace to see what is actually getting passsed through.

There is a chance...

in no way can i see this a good idea, and i can not imagine any developer arguing for it..

If by replayability you mean the ability to recover from...