Backing up to disk, and then having your backup software back this file up gives you the most flexibility.
Whether that is "best" is entirely subjective. Some cons: - Additional disk space required - Two step process - so more places for the process to fail Some pros: - When testing restores - can test the restore to file share, and then separately test the restore to SQL Server - Backup to disk might be faster (if you are backing up to a fast array) that doesn't have a dependency on the network - Your backup software probably has limitations on what it can directly restore to. Backup to disk eliminates 99% of those What else you are backing up, and how you are doing it, will affect your decision (e.g. do you back everything else up directly? Or do you need to restore to files?). The Master database restore below is a non-issue Cheers Ken From: Sam Cayze [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Tuesday, 29 September 2009 11:25 PM To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: RE: Am I backing up SQL correctly? That's 'one' way to do it, not the best IMO. BE does have a SQL Agent that will talk to SQL directly. The advantages of this are that you can backup just the Transaction Logs, or do a Full Database backup. You can also restore to certain transaction point and DR is a lot easier. It also keeps all your backup plans in one central management tool. They way you are doing takes up a lot of space and the master database restore is a little more tedious. Depending on your RPO, you may want to do log backups every few hours of so. I use BOTH the BE Agent AND the Maint. Plan for backups. -Sam ________________________________ From: James Kerr [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Tuesday, September 29, 2009 10:09 AM To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: Am I backing up SQL correctly? I have an MS SQL 2003 database that I backup by having it run its own backup of the databases and it creates .bak files. Then later on in the evening I have BE backup those .bak files to tape. These .bak files should allow me to restore a database right? James ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~
