sql-server Archives - Page 3 of 4

What databases to backup?

February 22, 2024February 23, 2014 by Omelchenko Alexander

Doing backups might become a repetitive and reflex action if done for quite a long time. But due to this, you might skip a few things at the beginning and never add them to your checklist schedule when doing backups.

The following article presents a list of databases to backup and reasons why you should do it.

The media family on device is incorrectly formed

February 26, 2024January 29, 2014 by Omelchenko Alexander

If you encounter the error message, “the media family on device is incorrectly formed. SQL Server cannot process this media family,” you may not initially understand exactly what happened.

This post will try to give you a few suggestions as to what might have gone wrong and what to do in those situations.

Backup best practices – a shortlist

March 4, 2024January 24, 2014 by Omelchenko Alexander

If you’re here, then there’s a high chance you already know the importance of good backups and what they mean to a serious business.
Taking care of database backups is an important and very sensitive job.
This is why we tried to make a shortlist of some backup best practices that you should be aware of when you’re either doing backups or you’re trying to restore them, in order to be covered for any of the common and slightly uncommon situations involving backups.

Learn SQL #3 : SQL Commands

February 22, 2024January 23, 2014 by Omelchenko Alexander

Now that we know how SQL works in a database system, it is now time to learn what sql commands (code) we need to write for specific operations.

As we said in our previous post, SQL gives you complete power over your data. But what does this mean exactly? We have many types of commands which allow you to do different operations with your data.

Backup the Tail of the Transaction Log

January 17, 2024November 10, 2013 by Omelchenko Alexander

SQL Server has such a thing as transaction log tail backup. In this article, we will figure out what it is, why it is needed, and how to do it.

Tail-Log Backups

February 19, 2024November 10, 2013 by Omelchenko Alexander

In this article, we will offer information about tail-log backups, a feature that is available for SQL Server versions 2005 and newer. This is a topic which you should be aware of if your backup and restore process for your SQL Server databases is using either the FULL or Bulk-Logged recovery model.

Backup the Transaction Log When the Database is Damaged

February 14, 2024November 9, 2013 by Omelchenko Alexander

This post will address the issue of backing up the Transaction Log in the unfortunate eventuality when your SQL Server Database is damaged.

We will offer details regarding how you can do your Transaction Log backup with either T-SQL queries or by using the graphical interface of SSMS (SQL Server Management Studio) in a step-by-step example.

How To Configure Backup Compression

February 14, 2024November 9, 2013 by Omelchenko Alexander

Now that we have previously discussed about backup compression, it is time we offer details about how to configure compression for your backups.

Just as a short reminder, backup compression is a powerful feature offered by SQL Server (versions 2008 and newer) that allows you to shrink the amount of storage space used by your backup files while at the same time increasing the speed of recovery, which goes hand in hand with lower CPU usage when restoring the database from your backup.

Backup Compression

February 14, 2024November 9, 2013 by Omelchenko Alexander

Backup Compression is a feature of SQL Server versions 2008 and later (2008, 2008 R2, 2012) which offers you more benefits without any cost to your data or its integrity.

In spite of \having been through a data compression process, the compressed backup actually has a few advantages over regular backups.

How to backup a table in SQL Server

February 13, 2024November 3, 2013 by Omelchenko Alexander

Standard SQL Server backup does not support backup of a separate table, but this does not mean that this task cannot be solved in principle. Several tools and tricks allow you to backup a single table with data.

However, please pay attention that the fact that you need to backup an individual table, in some cases, may be a sign that the database is poorly designed. Perhaps the table you want to backup needs to be moved to a separate database. SQL Server supports cross-database queries, and at the SQL query level there is access to tables in other databases.

The main problem with backing up a separate table is that the backup data in the table is not consistent with the rest of the database, which can lead to logical errors in the data or banal foreign key errors.