1002-001-002 Database Server Maintenance Plan
Contents Database Server Maintenance Plan REQUIREMENTS AND RECOMMENDATION DISCLAIMER... 3 OBJECTIVE... 4 SQL SERVER INSTALLATION... 4 HOW TO TAKE BACKUP... 5 USING UI... 5 CREATING A BACKUP USING SQL SERVER COMMAND LINE (T-SQL)... 6 HOW TO RESTORE THE DATABASE... 7 USING UI... 7 RESTORE DATABASE BACKUP USING SQL SCRIPT (T-SQL)... 9 CREATING A NEW DATABASE... 10 YOUR NEW DATABASE... 11 OTHER OPTIONS... 12 HAVING A SOLID BACKUP PLAN... 13 DETERMINE WHAT IS NEEDED... 13 RECOVERY MODEL... 13 SELECT BACKUP TYPES... 14 BACKUP SCHEDULE... 14 BACKUP PROCESS... 14 REFERENCES... 18 2
REQUIREMENTS AND RECOMMENDATION DISCLAIMER Whilst every effort has been made to ensure that the information and content within this document is accurate, up-to-date and reliable, Gulf Solution Group disclaims any and all liability as to any results or conditions arising after the application of this information. Actions taken from information in the document are solely at the user's own risk. The user should thoroughly test the information in a nonproduction environment first before applying it to LIVE environment This document also contains links to third-party sites which are not under the control of gulf solution and gulf solution is not responsible for the contents on any linked site or any link contained in a linked site, or any changes or updates to such sites. Gulf solution is providing these links to you only as a convenience, and the inclusion of any link does not imply that gulf solution endorses or accepts any responsibility for the content on such third-party sites Performance and response time are affected by many factors related to hardware (such as RAM, processor speed, and hard disk subsystem performance), network configuration (such as NIC performance, cable type, topology, operating system, parameters, and traffic), and the database (such as size, number of concurrent users, and the type of activities each user is performing). In addition, network and workstation operating systems, third-party software products, and our own products are continuously updated with new features and options, which often place greater demands on hardware. Gulf Solutions Group staff may provide limited informal guidance based on information made available. However, neither these system requirements nor our staff's guidance constitute a guarantee of compatibility, outcome, or performance. We encourage organizations to consult their own IT System's Staff or external experts to ensure optimum results. Comprehensive technical consulting services are available through Gulf Solutions Group and under a separate consulting arrangement; our consultants evaluate the installation of all Gulf Solutions Group applications and recommend optimal hardware/system configuration options. Email support@gulfsolution.com for more information. 3
OBJECTIVE The objective of this document is to provide guidelines for the installation of the SQL Server, backup/restore database and method for Database maintenance of SQL Server database. SQL SERVER INSTALLATION A Step by Step guide to installing SQL Server simply and successfully with no prior knowledge (1002-001-001) Installing SQL Server 2008 (1002-001-001) Installing SQL Server 2008 R2 (1002-001-001) Installing SQL Server 2008 R2 Express Edition (1002-001-001) Installing SQL Server 2005 (1002-001-001) Installing SQL Server 2005 Express Edition 4
HOW TO TAKE BACKUP USING UI 1. After connecting to the appropriate instance of the Microsoft SQL Server Database Engine, in Object Explorer, click the server name to expand the server tree. 2. Expand Databases, and depending on the database, either select a user database or expand System Databases and select a system database. 3. Right-click the database, point to Tasks, and then click Back Up. The Back Up Database dialog box appears. 4. In the Database list box, verify the database name. You can optionally select a different database from the list. 5. You can perform a database backup for any recovery model (FULL, BULK_LOGGED, or SIMPLE). 6. In the Backup type list box, select Full. 7. For Backup component, click Database. 8. Either accept the default backup set name suggested in the Name text box, or enter a different name for the backup set. 9. Optionally, in the Description text box, enter a description of the backup set. 10. Specify when the backup set will expire and can be overwritten without explicitly skipping verification of the expiration data: 1. To have the backup set expire after a specific number of days, click After (the default option), and enter the number of days after set creation that the set will expire. This value can be from 0 to 99999 days; a value of 0 days means that the backup set will never expire. The default value is set in the Default backup media retention (in days) option of the Server Properties dialog box (Database Settings Page). To access this, right-click the server name in Object Explorer and select properties; then select the Database Settings page. 2. To have the backup set expire on a specific date, click On, and enter the date on which the set will expire. 5
11. Choose the type of backup destination by clicking Disk or Tape. To select the paths of up to 64 disk or tape drives containing a single media set, click Add. The selected paths are displayed in the Backup to list box. To remove a backup destination, select it and click Remove. To view the contents of a backup destination, select it and click Contents. 12. To view or select the advanced options, click Options in the Select a page pane. 13. Select an Overwrite Media option, by clicking one of the following: 1. Back up to the existing media set For this option, click either Append to the existing backup set or Overwrite all existing backup sets. 2. Optionally, select Check media set name and backup set expiration to cause the backup operation to verify the date and time at which the media set and backup set expire. Optionally, enter a name in the Media set name text box. If no name is specified, a media set with a blank name is created. If you specify a media set name, the media (tape or disk) is checked to see whether the actual name matches the name you enter here. 3. Back up to a new media set, and erase all existing backup sets For this option, enter a name in the New media set name text box, and, optionally, describe the media set in the New media set description text box. 14. In the Reliability section, optionally check: 1. Verify backup when finished. 2. Perform checksum before writing to media, and, optionally, Continue on checksum error. 15. If you are backing up to a tape drive (as specified in the Destination section of the General page), the Unload the tape after backup option is active. Clicking this option activates the Rewind the tape before unloading option. CREATING A BACKUP USING SQL SERVER COMMAND LINE (T-SQL) BACKUP DATABASE DATABASENAME TO DISK = 'C:\DATABASENAME.BAK' WITH NOFORMAT, NOINIT, NAME = N' DATABASENAME -Full Database Backup', SKIP, NOREWIND, NOUNLOAD, STATS = 10 GO 6
HOW TO RESTORE THE DATABASE USING UI 1. After you connect to the appropriate instance of the Microsoft SQL Server Database Engine, in Object Explorer, click the server name to expand the server tree. 2. Expand Databases. Depending on the database, either select a user database or expand System Databases, and then select a system database. 3. Right-click the database, point to Tasks, and then click Restore. 4. Click Database, which opens the Restore Database dialog box. 5. On the General page, the name of the restoring database appears in the To database list box. To create a new database, enter its name in the list box. 6. In the To a point in time text box, either retain the default (Most recent possible) or select a specific date and time by clicking the browse button, which opens the Point in Time Restore dialog box 7. To specify the source and location of the backup sets to restore, click one of the following options: I. From database Enter a database name in the list box. II. From device Click the browse button, which opens the Specify Backup dialog box. In the Backup media list box, select one of the listed device types. To select one or more devices for the Backup location list box, click Add. After you add the devices you want to the Backup location list box, click OK to return to the General page. 8. In the Select the backup sets to restore grid, select the backups to restore. This grid displays the backups available for the specified location. By default, a recovery plan is suggested. To override the suggested recovery plan, you can change the selections in the grid. Any backups that depend on a deselected backup are deselected automatically. 9. To view or select the advanced options, click Options in the Select a page pane. 7
10. In the Restore options panel, you can choose any of the following options, if appropriate for your situation: I. Overwrite the existing database II. Preserve the replication settings III. Prompt before restoring each backup IV. Restrict access to the restored database 11. Optionally, you can restore the database to a new location by specifying a new restore destination for each file in the Restore the database files as grid 12. The Recovery state panel determines the state of the database after the restore operation. The default behavior is: I. Leave the database ready to use by rolling back the uncommitted transactions. Additional transaction logs cannot be restored. (RESTORE WITH RECOVERY) Alternatively, you can choose either of the following options: II. III. Leave the database non-operational, and do not roll back the uncommitted transactions. Additional transaction logs can be restored. (RESTORE WITH NORECOVERY) Leave the database in read-only mode. Undo uncommitted transactions, but save the undo actions in a standby file so that recovery effects can be reverted. (RESTORE WITH STANDBY) Note: Notice that it wants to restore the two file names right on top of the file names for AdventureWorks. SQL Server won't actually let you do that unless you check the "Overwrite the existing database" checkbox above. You'll need to edit those filenames to change the name. 8
RESTORE DATABASE BACKUP USING SQL SCRIPT (T-SQL) The Database MyDB has full backup MyDBbackup.bak. It can be restored using following two steps. Step 1: Retrieve the Logical file name of the database from backup. RESTORE FILELISTONLY FROM DISK = N'Database Backup file path GO Step 2: Restore Database RESTORE DATABASE [DestinationDB] FROM DISK = N'Database Backup file path' WITH FILE = 1, MOVE N'MDFLogicalName' TO 'MDFLogicalFileNamePath, MOVE 'LDFLogicalName' TO ' LDFLogicalFileNamePath ', NOUNLOAD, STATS = 10 GO 9
CREATING A NEW DATABASE If you've only just installed SQL Server, you might notice that some databases have already been created. These are system and sample databases. Database Type Description master System database Stores system level information such as user accounts, configuration settings, and info on all other databases. model System database This database is used as a template for all other databases that are created. msdb System database Used by the SQL Server Agent for configuring alerts and scheduled jobs etc. tempdb System database Holds all temporary tables, temporary stored procedures, and any other temporary storage requirements generated by SQL Server. pubs Sample database This database can be used for training purposes, and is based on a book publishing company. Northwind Sample database This database can be used for training purposes, and is based on a fictitious company called "Northwind Traders". We will now create another user database. The following steps demonstrate how to create a database in SQL Server using Enterprise Manager. 1. Right click on the "Databases" icon and select "New Database...". 2. Name your database and click "OK": 10
YOUR NEW DATABASE You will now notice your new database appears under the "Databases" section of Enterprise Manager. Your new database is based on the "Model" database. The Model database is a system database which is used as a template whenever a new database is created. If you use the left pane to navigate to your database and expand the tree, you will notice that your database already contains a number of objects. For example, it already contains tables, views, and stored procedures. These are system objects which provide information about the database. 11
OTHER OPTIONS Database Server Maintenance Plan We have just created a database using the default options. When we created the database, a "Data File" and a "Transaction Log" were created. They were created in the default location for our server. If we'd wanted to, we could have specified a different location for these files by using the "Data Files" tab and "Transaction Log" tab. We also could have changed specifications on whether to allow the file to grow automatically (as it stores more and more data), and if so, how that growth should be managed. 12
HAVING A SOLID BACKUP PLAN The following checklist is a list of items that you should consider when implementing your backup strategy. DETERMINE WHAT IS NEEDED 1. How much data can be lost? A day, one hour, a week, none... 2. What kind of processing occurs? Transaction, batch loading, reporting, a combination... 3. This data be easily recreated if there is a failure or it is not the only source of this data? 4. Do you have very big batch loads that take considerable amount of time or load a lot of data? RECOVERY MODEL Based on the answers to the questions in item #1 you can determine the recovery model for your database. 1. How much data can be lost? A day, one hour, a week, none... If your answer is less than a day or none you should consider the Full recovery model. If your answer is a more than a day then you could use the Simple recovery model (this is assuming you are doing full backups every day). 2. What kind of processing occurs? Transaction, batch load, reporting only, a combination... If your answer is transaction or a combination then you should consider the Full recovery model. If your answer is reporting only you could use the Simple recovery model (this is assuming this data is loaded from another source and can be easily recreated). If your answer is batch load you could use the Simple recovery model (this is assuming that you can reload the batch data without loosing any data). 3. This data be easily recreated if there is a failure or it is not the only source of this data? If your answer is No than you should use the Full recovery model. If your answer is Yes then you could use the Simple recovery model (assuming that it is not that hard to recreate the data). 4. Do you have very big batch loads that take considerable amount of time as well as load a lot of data? If your answer is No than you should use the Full recovery model. If your answer is Yes then you could use the Bulk-Logged recovery model. Depending on how you load your data you can minimize the logging in the transaction log and therefore have smaller transaction log backups. The only drawback is that if there is a bulk-logged activity in a transaction log backup you are not able to do a point in time recovery for the transaction log backup file that has the bulk-logged operation. 13
If your answers include Full for any of these questions you should use the Full recovery model. The only difference would be the answer to the last question where you could use Bulk-Logged instead of Full. SELECT BACKUP TYPES SQL Server offers many different types of backups such as the following: Full - backups entire database Differential - backups all changes since last full backup Transaction Log - backups transaction log for all changes since last transaction log backup File - allows you to backup one data file File group - allows you to backup an entire file group Based on the recovery model you selected you should follow a plan such as the following: Full or Bulk-Logged Recovery - Full backups and transaction log backups Simple Recovery - Full backups BACKUP SCHEDULE The next thing you need to decide is when to schedule your backups. The most intense backup is the full backup since it needs to read the entire database and write out the entire database. Since this activity is disk I/O intensive the best time to do this is at low peak times, therefore most people run full backups during off hours. Full Backups - midnight Differential Backups - every 3 hours Transaction Log Backups - every 1 hour BACKUP PROCESS SQL Server offers many built in options to backup your database such as: 1002-001-003 Database Maintenance Plan Guide Using sqlmaint.exe Writing T-SQL code using the BACKUP command T-SQL code using the BACKUP command BEGIN TRANSACTION DECLARE @JobID BINARY(16) DECLARE @ReturnCode INT SELECT @ReturnCode = 0 IF (SELECT COUNT(*) FROM msdb.dbo.syscategories WHERE name = N'Database Maintenance') < 1 EXECUTE msdb.dbo.sp_add_category @name = N'Database Maintenance' -- Delete the job with the same name (if it exists) SELECT @JobID = job_id 14
FROM msdb.dbo.sysjobs WHERE (name = N'aw db backup') IF (@JobID IS NOT NULL) BEGIN -- Check if the job is a multi-server job IF (EXISTS (SELECT * FROM msdb.dbo.sysjobservers WHERE (job_id = @JobID) AND (server_id <> 0))) BEGIN -- There is, so abort the script RAISERROR (N'Unable to import job ''aw db backup'' since there is already a multi-server job with this name.', 16, 1) GOTO QuitWithRollback END ELSE -- Delete the [local] job EXECUTE msdb.dbo.sp_delete_job @job_name = N'aw db backup' SELECT @JobID = NULL END BEGIN -- Add the job (job owner could be sa or domain account) EXECUTE @ReturnCode = msdb.dbo.sp_add_job @job_id = @JobID OUTPUT, @job_name = N'aw db backup', @owner_login_name = N'domain_name\login_name', @description = N'AdventureWorks database backup', @category_name = N'Database Maintenance', @enabled = 1, @notify_level_email = 0, @notify_level_page = 0, @notify_level_netsend = 0, @notify_level_eventlog = 2, --(default) On failure @delete_level= 0 IF (@@ERROR <> 0 OR @ReturnCode <> 0) GOTO QuitWithRollback -- Add the job steps -- Back up AdventureWorks databases to individual subdirectory in the \\server02\dbbackup\sql2005 directory. --Also, delete any backups older than 4 days EXECUTE @ReturnCode = msdb.dbo.sp_add_jobstep @job_id = @JobID, @step_id = 1, @step_name = N'Step 1', @command = N'EXECUTE master.dbo.xp_sqlmaint N''-S "dba02\sql2005" -D "AdventureWorks" -Rpt "C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL.1\MSSQL\LOG backup_aw.txt" -WriteHistory -VrfyBackup - 15
BkUpMedia DISK -BkUpDB "\\server02\dbbackup\sql2005" -CrBkSubDir -DelBkUps 4days -BkExt "BAK"''', @database_name = N'master', @server = N'', @database_user_name = N'', @subsystem = N'TSQL', @cmdexec_success_code = 0, @flags = 4, --Overwrite output file @retry_attempts = 0, @retry_interval = 0, @output_file_name = N'C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL.1\MSSQL\LOG\aw_backup.log', @on_success_step_id = 0, @on_success_action = 1, --(default) Quit with success @on_fail_step_id = 0, @on_fail_action = 2 --2 (default) Quit with failure IF (@@ERROR <> 0 OR @ReturnCode <> 0) GOTO QuitWithRollback EXECUTE @ReturnCode = msdb.dbo.sp_update_job @job_id = @JobID, @start_step_id = 1 IF (@@ERROR <> 0 OR @ReturnCode <> 0) GOTO QuitWithRollback -- Add the job schedules --run every night at 1:15 am EXECUTE @ReturnCode = msdb.dbo.sp_add_jobschedule @job_id = @JobID, @name = N'Schedule 1', @enabled = 1, @freq_type = 4, --Daily @freq_interval = 1, --Every freq_interval days @freq_subday_type = 1, --At the specified time @freq_subday_interval = 0, @freq_relative_interval = 0, @freq_recurrence_factor = 0, @active_start_date = 20060807, @active_start_time = 11500, -- at 1:15 am @active_end_date = 99991231, @active_end_time = 235959 IF (@@ERROR <> 0 OR @ReturnCode <> 0) GOTO QuitWithRollback -- Add the Target Servers EXECUTE @ReturnCode = msdb.dbo.sp_add_jobserver @job_id = @JobID, @server_name = N'dba02\sql2005' IF (@@ERROR <> 0 OR @ReturnCode <> 0) GOTO QuitWithRollback END COMMIT TRANSACTION GOTO EndSave QuitWithRollback: IF (@@TRANCOUNT > 0) ROLLBACK TRANSACTION 16
EndSave: Database Server Maintenance Plan In addition to these items there are also several third party tools that allow you to backup your databases. These tools offer some additional options such as writing directly to tape, encryption, compression, etc... 17
REFERENCES o o o o How to: Back Up a Database (SQL Server Management Studio) http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms187510.aspx How to: Restore a Differential Database Backup http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms175510(v=sql.90).aspx SQL Server - Create a Database http://www.quackit.com/sql_server/sql_server_2008/tutorial/create_a_database.cfm SQL Server Backup Plan http://www.mssqltips.com/tip.asp?tip=1284 18
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