How do we differentiate between a Native SQL Backup and Litespeed backup

  • Hi ,

    WE have a PROD environment with around 200 DB's. We used native SQL backups for DB backups. Recently, one of the DBA installed Quest Litespeed on the Server and told he changed some of the backup jobs from Native SQL to Litespeed.

    I was asked to check all the back up jobs on the server to document and list the DB's with the information below :

    DB Name, Kind of Back Up ( Litespeed/ SQL Backup) , Last backed up .

    I checked the Litespeed console and I don't find the Instance registered in the Console.

    So, How do I check which DB is backed up through Litespeed and which one is backed up by SQL Backup ? I see all the Back up Jobs in the SQL Agent with the T-SQL Script in the steps.

    So, How do I differentiate the backups whether they are Litespeed backups (or) SQL Backups by the T-SQL code ??

    And is there any code which gives out the information of all the DB's at a time instead of checking each Job ??

    Please Advise

    Regards

    Kay

  • All the data on backups in your server is stored in msdb, in the system tables named things like "backupset". There's a column in msdb.dbo.backupset called "software_vendor_id", which will usually record an ID number for the software that was used to do the backup. Take a look at that, see if it'll do what you need.

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  • I queried the backupset Table . It showed up as the 4608 as the Software vendor ID for all the rows . Its the code number for SQL server . So,,, It does't show up in that column .

    I actually checked a select * from dbo.LitespeedDatabase,,,, which gave info on a column " lastbacked up Time" which has NULL for some of the rows. So, I think those DB's must not have been set up for the Litespped backup .

    What do you think ??

    Any suggestions ?

    kay

  • I'd say run a Lightspeed backup, and check the data before and after to see what it does. I've never seen a backup not get recorded in msdb, but I've also never used Lightspeed. I've used a variety of other backup products, and they all work as expected. So I suspect that Lightspeed simply isn't configured correctly, and if it's not showing up in msdb, it's probably not backing anything up.

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  • Since Red Gate Software (my employer) makes a product called "SQL Backup", I'd go with native/litespeed as the naming for the backup type.

    Ultimately I don't think it's critical to know this. If you can read the backup with RESTORE HEADERONLY, then it's native. Otherwise it might be Litespeed, or another product. All the third party products include a utility to convert the format back to native, so you can always restore with just a SQL Server installation.

  • THank you all for the help.

    I differentiated them by the T-SQL statement and SP used for the backup .

    regards

    Kay

  • Got a better way of verifying this. Get in to the Job history and drop down the Job details and it shows up the Litespeed info if it has been backed up by Litespeed.

    Thanks for all the Help .

    Kay

  • This is quite old question,but just in case if someone google it later,here is the query to find it out if the backup is configured using litespeed.

    This works for SQL server 2000.

    select distinct database_name from msdb..backupset where description is not null order by database_name

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