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Need opinion

  • June 18, 2004 at 3:24 pm

    #83244

    I have an active production database that has no maintenance that is run on it.  I would like to start doing a DBCC CHECKDB and DBCC INDEXDEFRAG at least once a week before the weekly full backup.  However, I actually have had this objected to by the business owner. 

    The reason for the objection is that the business owner is afraid that if the DBCC CHECKDB and DBCC INDEXDEFRAG happens before the backup, that this could potentially hurt the database and make the backup bad. 

    I honestly do not think that this is likely.  In fact, when a maintenance plan is created in EM, these things usually happen before the backup.

    Is there any validity to the business owners objection?

    Thanks!!

  • June 20, 2004 at 12:19 pm

    #511167

    No.  He should run the business and leave the database to others.    You NEED to run this maintenance on a regular basis.

    Derrick Leggett
    Mean Old DBA
    When life gives you a lemon, fire the DBA.

  • June 21, 2004 at 7:49 am

    #511209

    If you are taking transaction log backups as well you have the ability to restore to any point in the day.  The full backups just make the restore process faster.  Restoring to just prior to the full backup may mean restoring using yesterdays full plus 23 transaction log backups (assuming 1 per hour).  So even if the databases become corrupt it can be recovered to any point.  The business owner has no valid concern anyway about these utilities which should be run.

    Eamon's comments are good in that practice restores are a good idea just to make sure your backup process is valid.  But even if the copy became corrupt that doesn't necessarily mean the original is corrupt.

     

    Francis

  • June 21, 2004 at 9:45 am

    #511275

    All of the above are true.

    But I tend to do Indexdefrags / CheckDB etc AFTER a backup.

    That way just in case anything happens during the Check or defrag, I have a good copy.  I would rather restore a fragmented DB, then try to recover.

    You can to the recovers etc if something fails, but a simple restore is just that, "simple".


    KlK

  • June 21, 2004 at 11:59 am

    #511297

    You should run DBCC CHECKDB without repair option to ensure the database is in intergrity prior to back it up. That will ensure you have good database backup.

    How large is your database? How frequent do you perform full database backup? What is the database recovery mode?

  • June 22, 2004 at 4:37 am

    #511376

    Thanks a bunch!  That is what I thought.  A full backup is taken every night with tlogs done every hour from 5am - 8 pm.  The database is about 30GB and set to full recovery. 

    The business owner comes from a mainfram back ground and they have only had consultants doing all their SQL Server work.  I have been hired to do the DBA'ing but have found that there has been no communication to the business owner about best practices and why they need to be implemented.  Since I am the only DBA here, I wanted to ask someone else if there could be a reason for the business owners thoughts.  I personally am not aware of any other than misinformation or lack of knowledge.  I intend to correct this but am finding that the business owner really liked the person who set up the database regardless that the work was sub par.  There are a lot of other things that are not right that I am now having to figure out how to correct.

    If anyone can think of an actual instance where they have seen that maintenance had corrupted a database, I would like to know about it.

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