Backing Up Databases

Backing up databases is the most basic element of a maintenance plan—and probably the most important part. The importance of backups and the role they play are discussed in detail in Chapter 14, “Database Backup and Restore,” but basically, backups are needed to help limit the amount of data loss. For example, in the event of a disk drive failure, database backups can be used to restore the database data that was located on that drive.

The database backup options available via a maintenance plan include full, differential, and transaction log backups. The type of backup you select for a plan is heavily dependent on the type of environment you are maintaining and the type of database you are backing up. Databases that have ...

Get Microsoft® SQL Server 2008 R2 Unleashed now with the O’Reilly learning platform.

O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.