I would create a CLR function to do this.

If you must use xp_cmdshell you can set up a proxy account. See BOL about configuring a cmdshell proxy.

It could be as simple as:

if not exists(select 1 from maint_req where request_type = 'AROLE')

insert maint_req..........

First of all, there is a penalty to be paid for using nvarchar Vs. varchar. It takes twice as much space in tables, buffers, disk I/O, and any...

I'm not sure... I would check configuration for allowed protocols.... both the SQL client and the Database engine. Beyond that I'm scratching my head.

Have you installed anything else on...

Are you trying to run DTA on the server box or on your client computer? If the latter, make sure you have installed the .net 3.5 service pack and/or SQL...

can you provide the actual query in question? Without that.... not much we can do.

I recommend doing this with a .net application. We have to do this regularly via ftp and http and I set up a table driven .net application that downloads, unzips...

I think this will work for what you want to achieve:

select #table1.field1, count(*)

from #table1

inner join #table2 on #table1.field1 = #table2.field1 and #table2.fiel2 > #table1.field2

group by #table1.field1

for windows authentication the user name and password is not in the connections string, not is it in the registry.

There a number of things that can cause a server to "grind to a halt" as you say. sp_who2 is a good tool to help identify the causes. Typically blocking...

My suggestion would be to scatter you index rebuilds out throughout the week, in the hours having the lowest traffic times (usually in the wee hours of the morning.)

Consider your...

after you restore the SQL 2000 database to the 2008 server change the compatibility mode to 10.

We need to see what is going on in the method: CheckLawsonHoldRecord()

Evidently it somehow does not find the row and thus does not update it.

Just as a comment, I would...

if the second table (the one maintained by the trigger) is involved in a a lot of transactions then the trigger might be a bad idea. In that case use...

You will have to do some ugly nested case statements or subqueries to do this in a single select.

In my opinion this is a poor table design. It would...