Should I put my site on maintenance mode before using "drush sql-dump"? When performing drush sql-dump, should I set the site in maintenance mode or will this command makes sure a coherent dump will be generated even if users are busy using Drupal? I can't find confirmation in the documentation.
According to Moshe's answer in advantages of drush bam vs. drush sql-dump / drush sql-connect, the answer is no.  drush sql-dump does the right thing and will result in a consistent backup.