Best Practices

Configure start-up mode of your cluster SQL Services to Manual.

Try not to place user data on Primary File-group.

If you are using Fill Factor don’t forget to enable Pad Index.

Change the recovery model of your databases to SIMPLE where you don’t need point in time recovery and don’t wish

If you have to use Profiler on your production SQL Servers – filter as much as you can, configure profiler

Rebuild can certainly remove Fragmentation but if the page count is less than 1000 pages, Rebuild is not required.

Configure your anti-virus to exclude all your Database related files namely (mdf, ndf, ldf, trn, bak, log, tuf and other

Keep Guest account disabled for all your User Databases.

Provide appropriate Fill Factor while creating\rebuilding Indexes to avoid\minimize fragmentation.

Make sure Auto_Close is disabled for all Databases on your Production Servers.