Differential Backup of Database

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Differential Backup of Database

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RakeshRSingh

Posted Wednesday, April 21, 2010 6:16 AM

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Dear all,
I have a database of 1 TB size. I planned to take full backup on sunday and differential backup on each day. But when I tried taking differential backup another day after full backup on sunday it gave me error.

Error:--
Cannot perform a differential backup for database, because a current database backup does not exist. Perform a full database backup by reissuing BACKUP DATABASE, omitting the WITH DIFFERENTIAL option.

I further analyzed the problem on a test database and found that the culprit is SQL Server VSS Writer running while I am taking ntbackup of the database backup file to tape. When I saw backup and restore Report I saw entries with device type 7.

When I stopped SQL Server VSS Writer the problem got resolved.

Now I want your suggestions as I have to implement the same on production server. Is there any problem if I stop SQL VSS Service on Production Server.

Post #907660

Bhuvnesh

Posted Wednesday, April 21, 2010 6:48 AM

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RakeshRSingh (4/21/2010)

I further analyzed the problem on a test database and found that the culprit is SQL Server VSS Writer running while I am taking ntbackup of the database backup file to tape. When I saw backup and restore Report I saw entries with device type 7.

Something new to me . but have you checked that is FULL backup exist there ? i think it should be there before going for diffrential.

-------Bhuvnesh----------
I work only to learn Sql Server...though my company pays me for getting their stuff done Wink

Post #907684

Rob Schripsema

Posted Wednesday, April 21, 2010 6:24 PM

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Did the Sunday full backup complete successfully?

Rob Schripsema
Accelitec, Inc

Post #908243

RakeshRSingh

Posted Wednesday, April 21, 2010 9:26 PM

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Hi Bhuvnesh/ Rob,

Thanks for your reply, but as I said the full backup is completed successfully.

Post #908288

RakeshRSingh

Posted Monday, June 21, 2010 2:29 AM

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Dear All,

The problem was resolved by stopping VSS Service and it is running fine on production server.

Post #940150

EdVassie

Posted Tuesday, June 22, 2010 2:50 AM

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The SQL VSS service can be used for a number of things. Simply having VSS writer active will not in itself cause problems with your backup chain.

One typical use of VSS writer is with disk-based backup agents. You may find your Windows people have included your database in their backup plan. You may even find they are only sending offsite the backup they think they have made, or their DR plan is to only bring back onsite the backups they have made.

You should check with your Windows team if they have any tools that could have used VSS writer to take a backup, why they think they need to do them, and how the backups you take fit in to their DR plan.

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Post #940833

Robert Davis

Posted Tuesday, June 22, 2010 10:38 PM

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As EdVassie said, VSS writer itself is not to blame. This is a known issue with certain backup utilities that use the VSS Writer to create backups. This includes Data Protection Manager. So you probably have something running its own backups of the database causing this issue. Stopping VSS Writer is only going to make that process fail. So you should find out what that process is and stop that or stop doing native backups.

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Post #941487

carolwood

Posted Thursday, June 24, 2010 1:52 AM

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Hello Friends......

A differential database backup records only the data that has changed since the last full database backup. This full backup is called the differential base. Differential database backups are smaller and faster than full database backups. This saves backup time at the cost of increased complexity. For large databases, differential backups can occur at shorter intervals than database backups. This reduces the work-loss exposure.

Thanks

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Post #942280

Robert Davis

Posted Thursday, June 24, 2010 10:02 AM

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I think it's pretty obvious that everyone in this thread knows what a differential backup is. Also, differential backups are not always faster than a full backup. In fact, a differential backup could include the whole database.

Post #942555

sachnam

Posted Monday, July 5, 2010 5:25 AM

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here is the link which write the same wording which you have used carolwood.Thanks but pls. share your expierences\ queries rather than the exact copy of sentences for source....

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms181092.aspx

Post #947473

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