I need to be able to script the following process and would be grateful for any guidance in achieving it!
We have a live database which is backed up every night (SQL 2008 R2). We have a 3rd party which requires access to the database but management have decided they can have access to a time-delayed copy instead. So I have been tasked with restoring the previous nights backup to another SQL instance, complete with login information to which the 3rd party can access without impacting the live database.
I believe a script could perform the task, except the backup file name is not constant (i.e databasename_2015_02_15_223005_3661110) and I can't figure out a way of automating a restore without knowing the backup name. We keep 3 days of full backups on the server before they are archived.
Instead should I be looking at either snapshots or replication to produce the 24 hour delayed copy?
Related
I have a server which is running SQL Server 2008R2 SP1 and there are more than 200 online databases with their specific login and I want to move all of these databases to another machine with the same software SQL Server 2008R2 SP1.
I can afford downtime up to 8 hours so I'm not looking for complex solution like database mirroring and logshipping.
I have tried Backup & Restore, it work fine but trouble me in two ways :
1- I couldn't transfer login to new server so all of my users will have to create their user again which will my users to get angry.
(I have tried to script all of the logins from the security section but since I have realize the hash algorithm between two system maybe different, I cannot transfer my logins in this way)
2 - I have to backup & restore each database one by one which is so time consuming.
I have also tried copy wizard, but I have encountered with following error message at the final stage :
"SQL Server schedule job" job failed the job was invoked by user sa step to run was step 1.
Since mysource server is running based on windows server 2003, I cannot use the powershell V3 solution.
I have done many searches but all I found was a solution to transfer one database to another server.
But since I'm looking for a solution to transfer mass databases, this situation is being hair pulling and so difficult So I wil be very appreciated if you can provide me an easy and practical solution.
for moving logins between servers
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/918992
[moving logins][1]
then backup and restore all databases in that migraton day using pre built restore script if the db size is small , later restore the differential backups and make it online. if the size is an issue then implement log shipping or mirroring
What is the fastest way to backup/restore Azure SQL database?
The background: We have the database with size ~40 GB and restoring it from the .bacbac file (~4GB of compressed data) in the native way by Azure SQL Database Import/Export Service takes up to 6-8 hours. Creating .bacpac is also very long and takes ~2 hours.
UPD:
UPD.
Creating the database (by the way transactional consistent) copy using CREATE DATABASE [DBBackup] AS COPY OF [DB] takes only 15 minutes with 40 GB database and the restore is simple database rename.
UPD. Dec, 2014. Let me share with you our experience about the fastest way of DB migration schema we ended up with.
First of all, the approach with data-tier application (.bacpac) turned out to be not viable for us after DB became slightly bigger and it also will not work for you if you have at least one non-clustered index with total size > 2 GB until you disable non-clustered indexes before export - it's due to Azure SQL transaction log limit.
We stick to Azure Migration Wizard that for data transfer just runs BCP for each table (parameters of BCP are configurable) and it's ~20% faster than approach with .bacpac.
Here are some pitfalls we encountered with the Migration Wizard:
We run into encoding troubles for non-Unicode strings. Make sure
that BCP import and export runs with same collation. It's -C ... configuration switch, you can find parameters with which BCP calling
in .config file for MW application.
Take into account that MW (at least the version that is actual at the moment of this writing) runs BCP with parameters that will leave the constraints in non-trusted state, so do not forget to check all non-trusted constraints after BCP import.
If your database is 40GB it's long past time to consider having a redundant Database server that's ready to go as soon as the main becomes faulty.
You should have a second server running alongside the main DB server that has no actual routines except to sync with the main server on an hourly/daily basis (depending on how often your data changes, and how long it takes to run this process). You can also consider creating backups from this database server, instead of the main one.
If your main DB server goes down - for whatever reason - you can change the host address in your application to the backup database, and spend the 8 hours debugging your other server, instead of twiddling your thumbs waiting for the Azure Portal to do its thing while your clients complain.
Your database shouldn't be taking 6-8 hours to restore from backup though. If you are including upload/download time in that estimate, then you should consider storing your data in the Azure datacenter, as well as locally.
For more info see this article on Business Continuity on MSDN:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windowsazure/hh852669.aspx
You'll want to specifically look at the Database Copies section, but the article is worth reading in full if your DB is so large.
Azure now supports Point in time restore / Geo restore and GeoDR features. You can use the combination of these to have quick backup / restore. PiTR and Geo restore comes with no additional cost while you have to pay for
Geo replica
There are multiple ways to do backup, restore and copy jobs on Azure.
Point in time restore.
Azure Service takes full backups, multiple differential backups and t-log backups every 5 minutes.
Geo Restore
same as Point in time restore. Only difference is that it picks up a redundant copy from a different blob storage stored in a different region.
Geo-Replication
Same as SQL Availability Groups. 4 Replicas Async with read capabilities. Select a region to become a hot standby.
More on Microsoft Site here. Blog here.
Azure SQL Database already has these local replicas that Liam is referring to. You can find more details on these three local replicas here http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/1695.inside-windows-azure-sql-database.aspx#High_Availability_with_SQL_Azure
Also, SQL Database recently introduced new service tiers that include new point-in-time-restore. Full details at http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/azure/hh852669.aspx
Key is to use right data management strategy as well that helps solve your objective. Wrong architecture and approach to put everything on cloud can prove disastrous... here's more to it to read - http://archdipesh.blogspot.com/2014/03/windows-azure-data-strategies-and.html
I am currently trying to backup an empty SQL Server 2008 R2 database that I designed for a project that is getting shelved for the time being. I was going through the back up procedure through the SQL Management Studio when I noticed there was an option to make a Copy Only Back Up. I looked it up to see what it was but I didn't fully understand the options I was getting.
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms191495.aspx
I read the entry above as well as other entries and I keep seeing the phrase "independent of the sequence of conventional SQL Server backups."
Can anyone elaborate what this statement means or more about Copy Only Backups in general? I'm not sure if it's the backup I should do in this case? (My first reaction is no)
It's a full dump of a database, where you intent to take that dump and load it into some OTHER sql server instance. e.g. It's a nice way of making a complete copy of a DB without having to take down the db, detach the db, copy the .mdf files, re-attach, etc...
Naturally, since you're not using this "backup" as an actual backup, you don't want it to interfere with your normal backup schedules, hence the copy-only functionality. It's a full backup, but will not reset the backup schedule, so your normal next incremental/snapshot backup will work as usual.
This mechanism is necessary since the built-in hotcopy/migration tools in MSSMS are basically useless and can't handle its own databases in many cases.
Normally when you take a backup, it starts (or continues, depending on the type of backup that you took) what is called a log chain. Let's say that you need a copy of your database and, for whatever reason, you can't use your normally scheduled backups for this purpose. Let's walk through the scenario where you don't use a copy_only backup
Normal full backup
A bunch of differential backups
Another full backup (to make your copy database)
More differential backups
Delete the backup from step 3 (you know... to save space)
Disaster on your actual database that necessitates restore from backup
In this case, you can only restore to the last differential backup made in step 2 because the differential backups made in step 4 depend on the full backup from step 3. Now, if the backup in step 3 were a copy_only backup, you'd be fine because you're not re-establishing a log chain (which is to say that the differential backups in step 4 depend on the full backup from step 1.
If you are creating an archive backup and continuing to back it up on the server is not a concern, then it doesn't matter whether you use it or not. It will be restorable as the database either way.
I manage a web application for a client with the following specs:
ASP.net 3.5 running on a Virtual Windows 2003 Web Server
SQL Server Standard hosting the database
Database current size of 6Gb, with 1Gb/month growth rate
One single table is responsible for 98% of the size, holds the most critical data for the client
Log is not kept for this big table, only selects are done in this table
50 Gb FTP space avaiable for backup
Considering this scenario, what would be the best strategy for a SQL Backup and what tool would be best suited for this task (commercial applications included, client can pay for the license fee)?
Here is the strategy we use for CodePlex.com:
All SQL servers run with a peer server using SQL mirroring
Weekly full backup (stored on separate drive from databases)
Daily differential backup (stored on separate drive from databases)
Transaction log backup every 5 minutes (stored on separate drive from databases)
Daily tape backup
Tape backups taken offsite weekly
Also very important test your backups! Studies have shown that over 30% of untested backup procedures are flawed. Here is our backup testing strategy:
Every 30 minutes verify the full backup file exists (using scheduled task)
Every 30 minutes verify the differential backup file exists (using scheduled task)
Every 30 minutes verify the transaction log backup file exists (using scheduled task)
Every 30 minutes verify the database mirroring is configured (using scheduled task)
Every day, do a test restore of the full+differential backup and report the table row counts (using scheduled task)
Once a month do a test restore of the most recent tape backup and verify the data
It depends how critical is the data. Here is however how I i'd do it.
1. Run a full backup every day.
2. Run a differential backup every 4 hours.
3. Run a transactional log backup every 15 minutes
4. Keep a copy at the site and move a copy off the site as well as soon as the backup is done.
The database is not too big, and this is easily doable.
Use a third party tool like Redgate SQL Backup and it will automatically compress and encrypt the database backup for you. I have used it extensively and am a big fan.
Additionally if you another site available, and the data is very critical, you might want to think about setting up log shipping as well.
This is a VPC? Can you install apps?
http://www.jungledisk.com/
That's what we use - make a sql job that pushes out a backup every day, then use that service to push a copy back to Amazons S3 service. If not maybe you could have a local app that pulls the backup to a machine then pushes it /w S3 webservice, or still using Jungledisk.
This is important! If your app goes down it hurts! Also make sure you backup your deployed app and resources stored there... i.e. uploaded content to your apps storage directory.
I was supposed to type in my answer to your question but I realized there are lots of far greater resources somewhere like this article in SQLServerCentral.com. You can also find lots of "Best Practices on Backup" like this one.
You might also want to take into consideration how much data you can afford to lose and how long it will take you to restore the database. Your client may decide that they never want to lose more than 15 minutes of data ever, or they may decide that losing up to a days worth of data is okay with them.
I need some help for executing my planned backup strategy.
My database is about 1 gig in size.
I want to perform a full backup once per week, and incremental every hour.
Is all of this built into SQL Server 2005 Express?
Is it possible to roll over the backups so I only keep 1 months of backups?
Meaning the full weekly backup has 1 for each week, on the 5th week it writes over the oldest full backup.
You can do it, it's just harder.
You don't have maintenence plans, but that doesn't matter becuase they often cause more headaches than they solve. You will want to script the backup yourself.
The other issue is you won't have the SQL Server Agent, which is used for scheduling your scripts. You can solve this by using sqlcmd and the windows scheduler.
SQL Server express does not have the ability to setup maintenance plans, therefore you must manually execute the scripts. AFAIK.
With all other editions, a simple DB Maint. plan can be setup to do all of this, and it will even walk you through the process.