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nathan.russell
Starting Member
13 Posts |
 Posted - 2004-10-07 : 09:41:33
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| Hi,I wonder if anyone can help with this.I am a newbie to MS SQL - so please forgive any obvious blunders ! I am reading up as much as I can on the subject, and hopefully I'll get there !Anyway, my company has an MS SQL server hosted at our ISP. I am investigating a sensible backup strategy. We have no tape drive at the ISP; so I am investigating the idea of using database replication back to a SQL server here at my office which does have a tape drive.My thinking is, replicate a copy back to a server here, and back it up to tape. I think this gives my number of advantages (??) - I have a (close to) real time copy of the site (as close as my schedule dictates), I have data offsite, I can backup to tape with no worry about server downtime etc. Should the main server at the ISP fail, I can drive the office server to the ISP and use that as a temp replacement etc etc.So, first question - is this a viable proposal ??2nd question - does replication rely on MS shares ?I'm currently trying to setup a very basic snapshot replication (just to see how it works); and I cant get it to work. The thing that sticks out is that when I setup the Publisher/Distributer, it asks where the data should go, and defaults to a UNC style share name. My snapshot gets created OK, but my Subscription server cannot get to it.I can imagine a couple of reasons:1) it is using the sharename to try to get to it - this wont work for me as we have a firewall in front of the Publication/Distribution server which does not allow NetBios style traffic2) it uses MS domain architecture for authentication - again, our firewall wont pass this, plus we dont have a domain !!Does replication use MS shares / NetBios ?? or can it be configured to use a proper client/server architecture (like when a client application talks to the server - a much better solution in my mind !)Any help with this would be very much appreciated,ThanksNathan |
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tkizer
Almighty SQL Goddess
38200 Posts |
Posted - 2004-10-07 : 14:04:54
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| I do not believe this is a good solution. You should backup the database to disk then copy the file to your remote computer and then to tape. Are you allowed to backup the database to the local disk at the database server?Tara |
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nathan.russell
Starting Member
13 Posts |
Posted - 2004-10-07 : 14:48:06
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| Hi Tara,Thanks for your reply.You are right to pick up on the fact that what I am actually trying to do is backup my databases, rather than use replication per se.I have another thread on the go that is discussing various backup options for me here: [url]http://www.sqlteam.com/forums/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=40977[/url]I'd be interested in your views,Best regardsNathan |
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nathan.russell
Starting Member
13 Posts |
Posted - 2004-10-08 : 06:53:50
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| .... but on the subject of replication, purely out of interest, my original question stands - does it use file shares ?One day I might have a genuine need for replication, and I'd like to know how it worksI also get the impression that you SQL gurus dont really like replication ?? Why is this ?? Someone mentioned that its a pig to setup/maintain/monitor etc - is this true ?Is it not very efficient in what it does and how it does it ??Purely from an interest point of view, I'd welcome your comments,RegardsNathan |
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Does replication rely on shares ?