October 5, 2010 at 9:34 am
Looking for an opinion on implementing a backup strategy for one of my clients. They use SQL Server's native backup and compress the backup files for transfer to other servers located within their network using winzip. To copy the production database to the 3 backup/DR repositories takes approximately 3 hours each night. They do this through a batch file that can be executed using the SQL agent or the windows Task Scheduler and are looking for an opinion on which to use.
My initial reaction is twofold. First, using SQL Agent requires enabling the xp_cmdshell process and the security implications of that. My second feeling is that it would be much easier to manage a SQL agent job than a windows task scheduler job as job status/completion failure etc is much easier to gather via the SQL Agent (since it can write to the Event View, SQL logs etc.) than the Task Scheduler (which only writes to it's own log which doesn't contain much information other than start/stop time and exit code).
They are asking if it's OK to have a SQL agent job run for three hours to which I've said that it shouldn't be a problem, but I'm looking for more information to back me up.
Anyone have any insight, links etc. to share that may help to support my suggestion to use SQL Agent, or of course if I'm completely off my rocker, please tell me that as well.
And yes, I know there are a number of wonderful products out there to do backup compressions etc, but they don't really have the budget to go down those roads.
Thanks in advance.
-Luke.
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