Beginning Microsoft SQL Server 2008 ... - S3 Tech Training

Backup and Reco very
No database-driven application should ever be deployed or sold to a customer without a mechanism for
dealing with backup and recovery. As I’ve probably told people at least 1,000 times: You would truly be
amazed at the percentage of database operations that I’ve gone into that do not have any kind of reliable
backup. In a word: EEEeeeeeek!
There is one simple rule to follow regarding backups; do it early and often. The follow up to this to not
just back up to a file on the same disk and forget it; you need to make sure that a copy moves to a completely
separate place (ideally off-site) to be sure that it’s safe. I’ve personally seen servers catch fire.
(The stench was terrible, as were all the freaked out staff.) You don’t want to find out that your backups
went up in the same smoke that your original data did.
For applications being done by the relative beginner, you’re probably going to stick with referring the
customer or onsite administrator to SQL Server’s own backup and recovery tools, but, even if you do,
you should be prepared to support them as they come up to speed in their use. In addition, there is no
excuse for not understanding what it is the customer needs to do.
Creating a Backup: a.k.a. “A Dump”
Creating a backup file of a given database is actually pretty easy. Simply navigate in Object Explorer to
the database you’re interested in, and right-click.
Now choose Tasks and Back up, as shown in Figure 19-14.
Figure 19-14
Chapter 19: Playing Administrator
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