Category Archives: sqlbackupandftp

SQL Server Express Backup

While it’s easy to create SQL Server Express backup with SQL Server Management Studio it’s quite difficult to run it regularly since SQL Server Express edition lacks handy job scheduler maintenance options in comparison with the full version of SQL Server. Here is where third-party backup utilities like SQLBackupAndFTP enter the stage. Continue reading SQL Server Express Backup

How to set up SQL Server Email Job Notifications

As a DBA, automating your various jobs on SQL Server – taking backups, truncating logs, updating statistics, etc – is a good idea because it makes sure you don’t have to depend on your feeble memory for these important tasks. And it leaves you free for more vital tasks such as sleeping and bingeing on whatever new Netflix series is out. But to make sure your automated tasks are still running, you need a good notification method, and it should also be automated. And foolproof. So how do you do this? Continue reading How to set up SQL Server Email Job Notifications

SQL Server Copy-Only Backup

duck_familyFor many DBA’s, copy-only backups introduced in SQL Server 2005 are a little-known and little-used feature of SQL Server. However, they can be mightily useful whenever you need ad hoc backups and do not want to interrupt and mess up your existing backup schedule. Read on to find out more.

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How to set up Cloud-based Storage for SQL Server Backup

A central tenet of Disaster Recovery (DR) is that you should always maintain an offsite or off-premises copy of your critical database backups. The logic behind this is simple – if you don’t have access to your premises, for example in case of a natural disaster affecting your area, your offsite backups mean that you can restore them and still have access to your critical data. Let’s take a more in-depth look at cloud-based storage for your SQL Server backups. Continue reading How to set up Cloud-based Storage for SQL Server Backup

How to save SQL Server backups to Azure in SQLBackupAndFTP

Microsoft’s own Windows Azure cloud is one of the most popular backup options for storage of SQL Server backups. It is especially attractive as an offsite storage medium for SQL Server backups because it is a Microsoft product and is already has tie-ins with the latest versions of SQL Server, beginning with 2012 Service Pack 1, Cumulative Update 2. Let’s take a closer look at how to save your SQL Server backups to Azure. Continue reading How to save SQL Server backups to Azure in SQLBackupAndFTP

RESTORE VERIFYONLY and CHECKSUM options

For any SQL Server DBA who’s been in the field for a long time, you know that the exercise of restoring backups taken in SQL Server 2000 (and even SQL Server 2005 without using the CHECKSUM option) was many times a sweat-filled lottery. You usually gambled and/ or prayed to your respective deity that your backups would actually work. Why? Because you knew that restore failures were all too common. Despite SQL Server’s assurance that all was well because you had already verified your backups with the RESTORE VERIFYONLY option. So why was this the case? Why did restore operations fail so frequently? Let’s delve a bit more into the innards of the RESTORE VERIFYONLY and CHECKSUM options to find out.

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How to skip databases in Offline state in SQLBackupAndFTP

If you have a database in the OFFLINE state and these databases are scheduled to be backed up, their backup will fail and the whole backup job will be shown as Failed. Same when you use Database Mirroring, you may have databases in Restoring state and they can’t be backed up either.  If you have such databases included in your backup job, you may want to skip them if they are in an Offline or Restore state and show the whole job as Success, not Failure. Continue reading How to skip databases in Offline state in SQLBackupAndFTP