Extreme wait-time when taking a SQL Server database offline
After some additional searching (new search terms inspired by gbn's answer and u07ch's comment on KMike's answer) I found this, which completed successfully in 2 seconds:
ALTER DATABASE <dbname> SET OFFLINE WITH ROLLBACK IMMEDIATE
(Update)
When this still fails with the following error, you can fix it as inspired by this blog post:
ALTER DATABASE failed because a lock could not be placed on database 'dbname' Try again later.
you can run the following command to find out who is keeping a lock on your database:
EXEC sp_who2
And use whatever SPID
you find in the following command:
KILL <SPID>
Then run the ALTER DATABASE
command again. It should now work.
There is most likely a connection to the DB from somewhere (a rare example: asynchronous statistic update)
To find connections, use sys.sysprocesses
USE master
SELECT * FROM sys.sysprocesses WHERE dbid = DB_ID('MyDB')
To force disconnections, use ROLLBACK IMMEDIATE
USE master
ALTER DATABASE MyDB SET SINGLE_USER WITH ROLLBACK IMMEDIATE