August 6, 2012 at 7:44 am
Good afternoon,
I am now working for a small company who don't have a dedicated SQL Server DBA. After a brief chat with the IT manager he told me that he is not confident that the backup script he was given responsibility to run is backing up all the databases. He said that he's aware of the various tools available to automate our current process but doesn't have the knowledge to implement them!
I asked him about the number of SQL Server instances we have and the versions/editions we have. He said he doesn't know.
So I'm thinking, is it a good starting point to document the number of SQL Server instances / versions / editions / number of DBs / sizes etc using a tool such MS MAP? Would this be a good start to kick start the process of creating a backup plan?
Any advice would be much appreciated.
Regards.
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It takes a minimal capacity for rational thought to see that the corporate 'free press' is a structurally irrational and biased, and extremely violent, system of elite propaganda.
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Society has varying and conflicting interests; what is called objectivity is the disguise of one of these interests - that of neutrality. But neutrality is a fiction in an unneutral world. There are victims, there are executioners, and there are bystanders... and the 'objectivity' of the bystander calls for inaction while other heads fall.
Howard Zinn
August 6, 2012 at 8:34 am
Hope MS MapPoint is a data intergration and visualization product. and sorry i havent used it.
do you have huge number of servers to main that data in that.
what is the current plan(any basic explaination).
Regards
Durai Nagarajan
August 6, 2012 at 8:50 am
take a look at this peer acclaimed solution to backups.
http://ola.hallengren.com/sql-server-backup.html
aside from that, it doesn't matter what you use, unless you test the backups after it was completed.
running the backups is only 10% of the solution. actually restoring them is the other 90%
with actual testing in place, you would visually see if anything is not backed up,a nd by restoring the databases, you'd have confidence in the current solution (or not if there are problems.)
Lowell
August 6, 2012 at 9:16 am
This is very useful. Thank you.
---------------------------------------------------------
It takes a minimal capacity for rational thought to see that the corporate 'free press' is a structurally irrational and biased, and extremely violent, system of elite propaganda.
David Edwards - Media lens[/url]
Society has varying and conflicting interests; what is called objectivity is the disguise of one of these interests - that of neutrality. But neutrality is a fiction in an unneutral world. There are victims, there are executioners, and there are bystanders... and the 'objectivity' of the bystander calls for inaction while other heads fall.
Howard Zinn
August 6, 2012 at 9:43 am
The place to start with backup plans is to realize you don't need a backup plan, you need a restore plan.
Starting with an inventory is a good idea. Then work with the business units affected in order to determine what level of data loss is acceptable with each server and each database. A data-loss policy is the first step of a restore plan.
If, for example, a database is just a staging environment for data that's being loaded from files, then sent elsewhere, that particular database probably doesn't need much in terms of backups. What it needs is a method of re-running file imports in a way that gets the data back to a pre-loss condition. Simple recovery model, object Drop/Create scripts, any lookup tables stored as Insert scripts, and SSIS packages in source control, and you have a valid restore plan for that database, without a single Full/Diff/Log backup anywhere in sight.
A database that gets its content from nightly bulk loads has different recovery needs than one that undergoes constant transactional modifications throughout the day.
Mirroring or transactional replication, possibly clustered servers, might be needed for a restore plan for a business-critical, transactional database. Full and Log backups, possibly Diff backups, would also be needed, but your primary method of "restoring" it in case of a server crash might very well be automatic failover to a passive cluster node, or a mirror server.
Don't think "backups". Think "restores". You'll find that very helpful in designing these things.
- Gus "GSquared", RSVP, OODA, MAP, NMVP, FAQ, SAT, SQL, DNA, RNA, UOI, IOU, AM, PM, AD, BC, BCE, USA, UN, CF, ROFL, LOL, ETC
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August 6, 2012 at 9:51 am
Thanks for the advice GSquared, I really appreciate your time answering my question.
---------------------------------------------------------
It takes a minimal capacity for rational thought to see that the corporate 'free press' is a structurally irrational and biased, and extremely violent, system of elite propaganda.
David Edwards - Media lens[/url]
Society has varying and conflicting interests; what is called objectivity is the disguise of one of these interests - that of neutrality. But neutrality is a fiction in an unneutral world. There are victims, there are executioners, and there are bystanders... and the 'objectivity' of the bystander calls for inaction while other heads fall.
Howard Zinn
August 6, 2012 at 11:22 am
You're welcome.
- Gus "GSquared", RSVP, OODA, MAP, NMVP, FAQ, SAT, SQL, DNA, RNA, UOI, IOU, AM, PM, AD, BC, BCE, USA, UN, CF, ROFL, LOL, ETC
Property of The Thread
"Nobody knows the age of the human race, but everyone agrees it's old enough to know better." - Anon
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