Comments on: SQL SERVER – Backup Timeline and Understanding of Database Restore Process in Full Recovery Model

By: Madhuri

Madhuri — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 00:06:47 +0000

Pinal,

Thanks for the article. I am new to SQL Server and am trying to do a Restore of the database.
I have 1. Full Backup
2. Diff Backup 1,2,3,4
3. Transactional Backup 1,2,3,4,5

I could restore from the full backup.
And then (as per your article) tried to restore from
the latest diff backup (diff backup 4)

It errors out saying
This differential backup cannot be restored because the database has not been restored to the correct earlier state.

SQL Server version is 2005. And the first diff backup is the larger than subsequent diff backups.

Am I missing something?

Please comment.

By: fbit_user

fbit_user — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 17:32:13 +0000

hello sir,
my live (production) database (very few people use it) of size 5 GB (has got 7 years data) and we scheduled each night 1 differential backup and weekly 1 full backup. “No other backups are scheduled (as per my DBA’s decision)” As we know, hardly this system will have 100-200 inserts/updates/deletes per day (not more than that) but if I see size of differentials backed up database size is 1GB per day. Is there a way I can reduce as my boss asking why is this so huge in size when very few operations carried out daily?? As i am a developer I have very little knowledge on dba concepts like backups/restores. Please advise asap on this.

I reported same at microsoft site as well but changing recovery model to simple did nt help me :(

http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/sqldisasterrecovery/thread/33a6e516-c7f7-4acd-a95c-7a1a84e41ff8

By: Ravi

Ravi — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 02:32:29 +0000

Dear Pinal, Good work but y dont you have Related Posts in your Blog? I think it would be really useful

By: Richard

Richard — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 08:00:39 +0000

Good Day Mr. Pinal,

Excellent article, very informative and persuasive.

I’m a little confused with Transaction Logs.

Are they incremental in the sense that Log Backup2_2 contains only the data modifications after Log Backup2_1?

Thank you.

By: Rick Martinez

Rick Martinez — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 15:14:06 +0000

We are doing log shipping, and we are only shipping transaction logs from the primary database to the secondary database we do not ship the differential. We then restore the transaction log on the secondary database. Are we doing this wrong are we suppose to restore differential backups on the secondary database?

Our database is 250GB, we do a full backup on Wednesday, differential backup once a day (Sun, Mon, Tues, Thurs, Fri, Sat), and transaction logs every 30 minutes.

By: Imran Mohammed

Imran Mohammed — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 04:34:36 +0000

@ (Duplicate) Dave.

Is that recommendation from Microsoft or you just making it up.

No one knows everything. Its good to learn before you do something wrong.

If you know everything, please share you knowledge, We definitely want to learn from experienced people like you.

~ IM

By: Dave

Dave — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 19:35:13 +0000

If you cannot understand this concept move away from the server.

By: pramod

pramod — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 12:01:17 +0000

Thx Pinal. It’s really good article.
It is Helpful for the novice sql guys.

By: Edwin

Edwin — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 19:10:22 +0000

Sir,

It’s very a good and nice article on MS SQL Server database restore.

It clear up and add valuable knowledge to me.

Thanks,
Edwin

By: prasad

prasad — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 11:29:24 +0000

hi,
just i learned SQL DBA can u give best guidence to me

Thnaks Pinal

By: Beginner

Beginner — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 07:17:34 +0000

Really nice.
I can understand it now but I haven’t tried it.

Vishal suggest about an article showing steps and screen shots to restore using these backups. It would be really helpful for us.

Thanks Pinal

By: Guru

Guru — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 05:59:22 +0000

Hi Pinal,

Nice Article!!! Thanks. It will be very useful for Beginner’s.

Good Work!!!

By: Ganesh

Ganesh — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 04:50:26 +0000

Hi Pinal,

Exact and perfect explanation.

with best wishes
Ganesh

By: Sunit

Sunit — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 02:12:45 +0000

Nice article. Just nit-picking, but it would be nice to mention the easily forgotten “tail-backup” of the transaction log that needs to be done before starting the restore. Also all, except the last log backup, should be restored using the WITHOUT RECOVERY clause.

By: Vishal

Vishal — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 23:52:35 +0000

Well written article Pinal.
I have also found that this is a very common misunderstanding for many DBA’s about differential backups.

It would be great, if you could write an article showing steps and screen shots to restore using these backups.

Regards
Vishal

By: Ramdas

Ramdas — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 13:38:45 +0000

Good Illustration and Nice explanation of the diff. Database backup concept.

By: pinaldave

pinaldave — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 07:47:20 +0000

Thanks sqldude,

Fixed the typo.

By: sqldude

sqldude — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 07:16:29 +0000

Nice and clear explaination.

only one typo i guess
“Path 3 (FASTEST) : Full Database Restore >> Differential Database Backup 3 >> Log Backup 2_1 to all remaining logs.”

it should be
“Path 3 (FASTEST) : Full Database Restore >> Differential Database Backup 2 >> Log Backup 2_1 to all remaining logs.”

-Harshal

By: pinaldave

pinaldave — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 06:26:23 +0000

Kuldip,

It is great that you liked it!

Regards,
Pinal

By: Kuldip

Kuldip — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 05:30:24 +0000

Nice article Sir, Now it’s very much clear about Differential Database Backup