How to find out how long a SQL Server backup took

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.

I Need a Backup and I Need It Now

Have you ever wished that creating a backup on the fly was easier and quicker? Whether you do it with the GUI or with T-SQL, you still have to open up Management Studio, connect to the database, and go through the steps. You have to figure out ...

Operating system Error 112

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.

When was the last time your SQL Server database was restored

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.

Automate Test Database Restoration

Automate test database restorations from your production system.

Database Backup

Backup and Restore

Backup on the fly based on previous backups

This script uses the system backup history to run a differential backup and place it in the directory of the last full backup.

Understanding Logging and Recovery in SQL Server

Logging and recovery are critical parts of SQL Server, but they are often poorly understood. Paul Randal gives an overview of how the logging and recovery features work in SQL Server and explains the transaction log and recovery models to help you maintain a better database.

Database Snapshots