Nicole Garris (9/21/2009)

---

I agree that the default recovery model should be Full. However there are cases where the simple model is more appropriate. For example, if its mostly large "batch" jobs that update the database, and losing a day of processing would only cause a small amount of harm to the organization, then the simple recovery model may be a lot easier to administer. Should you lose the database, its fairly easy to restore the latest backup and then re-run the batch jobs.

Jason-181907 (9/21/2009)

---

For those that use "simple" recovery model, when it comes to backups, does it matter if you are doing full backups or simply backing up the .mdf/.ldf files? Wouldn't both create the same effect?

Jeffrey Williams-493691 (9/21/2009)

---

You cannot backup the mdf/ldf file while SQL Server is running. The files are locked and will not be backed up using normal backup utilities.

There are SAN based utilities that utilize VDI to 'freeze' SQL Server and then snap the volume where the databases reside. However, this is not the same as backing up the mdf/ldf.

And since there is no reason to shut down SQL Server every night - I don't see any way to back those files up, so using native SQL Server backups is the appropriate way to make sure you have good backups.