Can I Backup Across the Network?

By Bill Graziano on 17 August 2000 | Tags: Backup/Restore

---

Alex writes "Every night I dump my db to a file using a scheduled backup process. I know this is an elementary question, but I haven't been able to figure out how to get the backup to write to a file on another machine. My backup to a local disk protects me from stuipd human errors, but obviously if there's a hardware problem on the machine I'll be in bad shape. Right now I copy the backup file manually. There has to be a better way. I am running SQL Server 7 with the latest service packs."

(Updated by sqlguru) You can backup over the network. I prefer to use UNC paths because mapping drives under SQL Server can cause some weirdness (Hmm... maybe an article on that).

My favorite method is to not even muck with backup devices:

BACKUP DATABASE Foo TO DISK = '\\myserver\myshare\foo.bak' WITH INIT

Bam! Network backups.

SQLGuru

Related Articles Scheduling Jobs in SQL Server Express - Part 2 (1 December 2008) Scheduling Jobs in SQL Server Express (27 August 2008) Introduction to SQL Server 2005 Database Backups (19 December 2007) BACKUP and RESTORE in SQL Server -- Full Backups (12 February 2007) Database Backup Script (28 October 2002) SQL Server administration best practices (20 September 2001) Error Message when dumping to hard drive backup device (12 July 2000)

Other Recent Forum Posts Bulk alter SQL column data value in MS-SQL2019 in trans-sql (3h) Bulk alter SQL column data value in MS-SQL2019 in a Trans-Sql (3h) Filter query base on date field (4d) Pull results from a stored procedure (4d) Help With Query To Count Number of Pets & Vaccinations (5d) Connect sql off network (5d) Moving Registered Servers to a New Instance (9d) CU 31 for 2017 Will Not Install (9d)