Learn SQL Server Administration in a Month of Lunches

Chapter 5. Backup and recovery

Backups are perhaps the most common task people think of when you say “server maintenance.” Without a doubt, they’re important. I have to be honest: many organizations don’t use SQL Server’s native backup facilities. Instead, they rely on other backup software, like Backup Exec, BrightStor, or even Microsoft System Center Data Protection Manager. Those solutions let a company manage all of its backups—including SQL Server—in a single place, whereas SQL Server’s native backup abilities only apply to SQL Server. This chapter won’t cover those other solutions. What it will cover is what’s built into SQL Server—and plenty of organizations do use that, even if they only use SQL Server to create a backup file that is ...