Maintenance Plan...Why backup the T-log at the same time as the data file?

  • Am I missing something? If you add T-logs to your maintenance plan, you can't set it to fire off at other times than the whole plan executes. So, does this mean that if I want to have T-log backups every 2 hours and datafile backup once a day, I will need a different maintenance plan for each?

    I guess I just need someone to point me to a Best Practices link or describe it here. I am looking for a plan that is concise, proper, doesn't inundate my email box with notifications. What is the best way to approach this? I already was breaking out my maintenance plans into one for each database because of cleanup tasks. Should I just ignore the wizard all together and build my own maintenace plans? Is there a Best Practices "Maintenance Plans" for 2005 on this site?

    Thanks.

  • You will need a different maintaince plan for T-Logs and Full Backups.

    the ideal situation really depends on what your business needs are, a typical scenario might include a full back-up nightly , differntial back-ups every four hours, and t-logs every 15 minutes.

    Also do not forget to include your system databases in the backup plans.

    It depends on how big your databases are and how much downtime you are willing to allow for when you need to do a recovery.

    I prefer to use the maintance plans, some people prefer the control you can get by coding it by hand.

  • steveb (9/22/2008)


    You will need a different maintaince plan for T-Logs and Full Backups.

    you can use 1 maint plan if you like, launch the wizard and it asks "schedule for each task" or "single or no schedule". The plan will just create the required jobs and schedule them according to the schedules you define when creating the plan. Using just 1 plan can be confusing, but you can do it

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    "Ya can't make an omelette without breaking just a few eggs" 😉

  • Sigh...Sometimes I wonder how I get by in the world. I saw that option and I guess my brain just filed it away in the "I'm a idiot file". So, I guess the best practice is just to have maintenance plans for everything for every database? That just seems like a lot of maintenance plans. It just always seems to me that a maintenance plan should be all incompassing or at least close to all incompassing by definition. I guess it is just how I am viewing it. I will see the wisdom one of these days 🙂

    Thanks for both of your responses.

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