Jeff Iannucci wants to smooth things out:
While reviewing the configuration of a client’s SQL Server instance recently, I noticed that they had a very curious tempdb configuration. Although it had multiple files for the eight CPU cores as Microsoft recommends for tempdb configuration, it also had another MUCH larger file with a MUCH larger growth rate.
And it turns out that when this happens, there are some knock-on effects that make it a challenge to remove such a file later. But read on for the solution.