Borland StarTeam 2009 - Borland Technical Publications

Backing Up DatabasesThis chapter outlines the backup options available to DBAs and makes recommendations for backing up thedatabases used by the server configurations. Be aware that these are just recommendations. Any finalizeddisaster recovery plan must be created by your organization in consultation with its IT infrastructure staff.An application backup consists of backing up both the database and the application archive files. Starting withStarTeam Server 2005, you have a choice between online and offline backups. If all of your archive files arein Native-II format, you can back up a server configuration online—without shutting it down or locking it. If yourhave a pre-2005 StarTeam Server release, you must convert older archives from Native-I to Native-II formatprior to performing an online backup. Regardless of the Server release, you must also set up your databasefor an online backup.Backing Up SQL Server DatabasesFor server configuration online backups, it is essential to take full database and transaction log backups.SQL Server 2005 supports the following types of backups:• Full database backupA full database backup contains the full copy of the database as it was at the time when the backup wasinitiated. Full backups provide a snapshot of the database. Most of the recovery options require a full backupto be available.• Differential backupA differential database backup records only the data that has changed since the last full database backup.Scheduling frequent differential backups is a good idea because the backups are smaller and they completequickly. A differential backup without a prior full backup is useless.• Transaction log backupA transaction log backup includes all the transactions since the last transaction log backup. Transactionlog backups enable recovery up to the last committed transaction.• A file or file group backupA file or file group backup consists of backing up individual data files (or the files in the file group). The filesin a database can be backed up and restored individually.The entire database can be recreated from a database backup in one step by restoring the database. Therestore process overwrites the existing database or creates the database if it does not exist. The restoreddatabase will match the state of the database at the time the backup completed, minus any uncommittedtransactions. Uncommitted transactions are rolled back when the database is recovered.Based on the resource requirements, the DBA can also choose the recovery model for the database. Therecovery model balances logging overhead against the criticality of fully recovering the data.The recovery models supported by SQL Server 2005 are:• Full106 | Backing Up Databases