In a previous tip on Backup and Restore SQL Server databases programmatically with SMO, you've seen how you can use Windows PowerShell to backup and restore SQL Server databases. In this tip, I will cover how to use Windows PowerShell to generate SQL Server backups  Read more...

This script finds the last run status for Full / TL backups.  Read more...

Many articles on database administration take the perspective of trying to help you do your job better. We thought we might take a different tack and poke a little fun at some of more egregious mistakes we've seen over the years at IT shops.   Read more...

I recently submitted a tip regarding the existence of your backup files using the undocumented system stored procedure xp_fileexist. But how would you go about executing that script against all your SQL Server 2005 and SQL Server 2008 instances? I took that script and decided to go one step further using Policy Based Management to create a custom policy that you can then run against all your SQL Server 2005 and SQL Server 2008 instances.  Read more...

For the Friday Poll this week, Steve Jones is wondering what type of data protection you use at home for your information. Especially those all important family photos.  Read more...

One could be forgiven for thinking that there's little more you can do with third-party backup software than just ...er... backup databases. Shawn McGehee gives us his personal take on the implications of the improvements that have been made to SQL Backup for version 6.  Read more...

SharePoint administrators can minimize data loss by selecting the appropriate SQL Server recovery model. But which model is right for your enterprise?  Read more...

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You have configured your database backup jobs without any problems. The backups themselves seem to be working, but are the files still where you think they are? How do you know they have not been moved, or worse, deleted to free up some space on your server? And when would you find out that the files were no longer there?  Read more...

Is there any way that my ad hoc backups will not interrupt the sequence of my backup plan?  Read more...

What makes a successful backup? New author Steven Bouffard talks about some things you might want to consider when evaluating if your backup process is considered a success.  Read more...

Many shops do full backups of their databases as part of a job within SQL Agent, typically as part of a maintenance plan. This job will often times do all database backups in secession. As such, while you may know how long the job takes, you may not know how long any one particular database takes to have a full backup taken.   Read more...

The error message pops up when you try to restore the database to a different server or to a desktop or to a FAT32 file system. Learn a couple of ways for dealing with this error.  Read more...

Often times we are asked the question "when was the last time my database was restored, and where was it restored from?" In this tip, we will look at some of the system tables that capture restore history information and how you can query these system tables to answer this question.  Read more...

I write an editorial about why I thought tape still had a place in backups . There were some interesting responses that said disk works well for them and they wouldn’t go back to tape. I used to think the density was a big deal, along with cost, but maybe...  Read more...

Are tape systems obsolete? A recent incident has Steve Jones thinking perhaps not.  Read more...

Are tape systems obsolete? A recent incident has Steve Jones thinking perhaps not.  Read more...

Are tape systems obsolete? A recent incident has Steve Jones thinking perhaps not.  Read more...

Are tape systems obsolete? A recent incident has Steve Jones thinking perhaps not.  Read more...

This SQL School video shows how you can speed up your backup process by striping the backup across multiple disks. MVP Andy Warren narrates.  Read more...

One of the most common questions asked about SQL Server has to do with the transaction log and why does it grow. James Rea brings us a good explanation here of what happens and what you should do about it.  Read more...

One could be forgiven for thinking that there's little more you can do with third-party backup software than just ...er... backup databases. Shawn McGehee gives us his personal take on the implications of the improvements that have been made to SQL Backup for version 6.  Read more...

What makes a successful backup? New author Steven Bouffard talks about some things you might want to consider when evaluating if your backup process is considered a success.  Read more...