All posts by Ruslan Sudentas

What data SQLBackAndFTP sends to the server?

MISC, password, sql backup job

SQLBackupAndFTP application (SBF) communicates with https://api.sqlbak.com – below are the details. At no point any of the passwords or secret keys are being sent to SQLBackupAndFTP servers. Still, you may want to know what information is being exchanged in order to understand that your security and privacy is not compromised or to configure your firewall or proxy server if any issues arise.

Firewall configuration considerations

SBF connects to api.sqlbak.com web server to upload the data as described below. If there is an issue connecting to api.sqlbak.com – make sure that “SQLBackupAndFTP (SQL Server backup)” Windows service can connect to api.sqlbak.com:443. If the app connects to Internet through a Proxy server, you can set up Proxy server settings in the Tools -> Proxy Settings menu.

Licensing

When a user installs SBF and runs it for the first time, the app posts a request to api.sqlbak.com to register the installation and activate a Professional Trial license. The app requests api.sqlbak.com server in few times in a day to validate the Professional Trial license.

When a user enters a license key into SBF, the app posts a request to api.sqlbak.com to register the license for the installed app. The app requests api.sqlbak.com server in few times in a day to validate the current license. If SBF can not validate a license at least once in 24 hours, the license is downgraded to the Free edition.

Notification

SBF can show text and graphics with ads, notifications or announcements at the bottom of the main window. The app requests api.sqlbak.com server in few times in a day to request such content (if any). This feature does not throw an error the Internet connection is missing.

Automatic email feature

When user sends email via our servers using “Automatic/Zero-config” option (default for trials and paid editions with active subscriptions) –  SBF communicates with api.sqlbak.com to upload backup log. These log records do not contain passwords or secret keys.

See backup history on the web option

When “See backup history on the web” option is ON (in Backup Settings section – available for trials and paid editions with active subscriptions), SBF requests api.sqlbak.com to store the log records on sqlbackupandftp.com server. These log records do not contain passwords or secret keys.

Advanced log

Users may want to enable writing advanced log into a temporary file and send this file to SQLBackupAndFTP developer team. SBF does not send this file automatically. You can enable and send it to us using the main menu: Tools -> Advanced Log. This file does not contain passwords or secret keys.

Error statistics

When SBF encounters an error, SBF requests api.sqlbak.com server to send the error information including error text and stack trace. The error information does not contain passwords or secret keys.

Update

SBF requests api.sqlbak.com server to check the app for updates. The app is updated automatically if the new version is available for the license used and “Automatically download and install updates” option in settings is ON.

SQL down alert

When “Service down alert” option is ON and the connected server is not available (like service stopped), SBF requests api.sqlbak.com server to send an email notification. SBF also sends “Keep Alive” requests to api.sqlbak.com web service (if this option is ON).

Database Servers

SBF connects to a database server (local or remote) – whatever is specified in your job. If a remote connection is specified, your firewall may need to be configured to allow such connection.

Destinations

SBF connects to destinations for uploading database backups – Network, FTP server, Dropbox, Amazon S3, etc  – whatever is specified in your job. If a remote connection is specified, your firewall may need to be configured to allow such connection.

 

Service down alerts

alerts, sqlbackupandftp, testing

If any live server goes offline, an administrator has to be notified. Many companies use some third-party services to do that.  But what if your SQL Server service crashed for some reason? Will you be notified right away or will find out after many lost sales and transactions? What if SQLBackupAndFTP itself crashed (while extremely rare, but everything happens) – how would you know your backups are not being done?

Service down alerts option in SQLBackupAndFTP covers all of these cases. If you enable it from the main screen (see the image on the right), an email will be sent to you in the following cases:

  1. If your server is down or
  2. If your SQL Server or MySQL is down or
  3. If the SQLBackupAndFTP service is down

If you need to email to multiple recipients – as usual, just separate it by a comma. You need a paid plan with a Full-Service subscription to use this option.

How to automate SQL Server database backups

Database Backup, full backup, sql backup job

The question “How to automate SQL Server database backups” has several answers and here we will review all of the best options. But first, let’s define what SQL Server database backup automation stands for. SQL Server backup automation is a process that includes at least the following steps:

    1. Run SQL Server backup for selected databases on a schedule
    2. Compress & encrypt the backups
    3. Upload the backup to a remote destination – network, NAS, FTP on one of the cloud storages (Dropbox, AWS, OneDrive, SkyDrive, etc..)
    4. Send email notification on backup success or failure

The most popular SQL Server backup automation options that we review here are:

SQLBackupAndFTP
Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio & SQL Server Agent
T-SQL
Ola Hallengren script
or you can just jump straight to the Conclusion

 

Continue reading How to automate SQL Server database backups →

How to Backup SQL Database Automatically Using SSMS

Database Backup, sql backup job, SQL Server

If you are looking for a tutorial on how to backup SQL database automatically with SSMS just follow the instructions below. Note however that there are better ways to backup SQL Server database than SSMS. This is especially true when you are running MS SQL Server Express that lacks SQL Server Agent – just use SQLBackupAndFTP instead of the method below.

Continue reading How to Backup SQL Database Automatically Using SSMS →

How to backup remote SQL Server database using SQLBackupAndFTP

Database Backup, full backup, sqlbackupandftp

You can run scheduled backups of a remote SQL server using SQLBackupAndFTP. The standard BACKUP DATABASE command would not work on a remote SQL Server, so scripts would be the only option. Scripts are not as good as *.bak files because they are larger, do not support differential backups, and should be used only if you do not have an option to create *.bak files. If you want to know more – read a good explanation of why remote SQL backups are such a pain. Continue reading How to backup remote SQL Server database using SQLBackupAndFTP →

Backup SQL Server on the network

differential, sql backup job, Uncategorized

SQLBackupAndFTP creates standard *.bak files when it runs locally on the same computer where SQL Server is. For remote SQL Server computer backups SQLBackupAndFTP creates backup script files (*.sql). Whenever possible, you should always opt for *.bak backups against *.sql backup files.

Here we will show you how to backup a SQL Server on the network to the standard *.bak file even when SQLBackupAndFTP runs on a different computer from where the SQL Server is. The main requirement, in this case, is that both SQL server and SQLBackupAndFTP have access to the same shared network folder.

Continue reading Backup SQL Server on the network →