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 Deleting backup from device

Author  Topic 

ravilobo
Master Smack Fu Yak Hacker

1184 Posts

Posted - 2008-08-01 : 12:12:30
How to delete the backup from BACKUP DEVICE?

There is an EXPIRATION DATE for each backup in the device when I see it from SSMS. Does backup in the device gets deleted when the expiration is reached?

The minimum expiration time is 1 day, I need to wait for 1 day to verify this. Does anyone use this feature?



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I think, therefore I am - Rene Descartes

mcrowley
Aged Yak Warrior

771 Posts

Posted - 2008-08-01 : 13:56:26
Are these devices on the disk, or on tape? Normally tapes are rotated, and overwritten. If the device is on disk, then you can not remove older backups, but must reinitialize the file (removing all backups therein). If you are just looking at a report in SSMS, this might be looking at the records kept in several tables in the msdb database, and are not actual backups but the records that these backups took place.
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ravilobo
Master Smack Fu Yak Hacker

1184 Posts

Posted - 2008-08-01 : 14:09:43
The device is on the disk.

Thank you for your explanation. I got your point.

If I define INIT in the backup script , along with RETAINDAYS , probabaly I should be able to achive my need.

I need the backup in the device for couple of days, before it gets deleted.

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I think, therefore I am - Rene Descartes
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mcrowley
Aged Yak Warrior

771 Posts

Posted - 2008-08-01 : 14:33:08
In order to do that, you will have to have a different name for the file each day. I used to do this by having a separate folder for each day's backups.
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ravilobo
Master Smack Fu Yak Hacker

1184 Posts

Posted - 2008-08-01 : 14:57:47
Ok, I verified the things you said.
So, is there not a way to delete the backup files from the device?


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I think, therefore I am - Rene Descartes
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tkizer
Almighty SQL Goddess

38200 Posts

Posted - 2008-08-01 : 15:11:43
This is one of the reasons why you shouldn't use backup devices. Just backup to a file using with init and specify a new name each day.

Tara Kizer
Microsoft MVP for Windows Server System - SQL Server
http://weblogs.sqlteam.com/tarad/

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ravilobo
Master Smack Fu Yak Hacker

1184 Posts

Posted - 2008-08-01 : 15:21:00
Thank you Tara.

mcrowley, do you have any out of the box solution?

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I think, therefore I am - Rene Descartes
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tkizer
Almighty SQL Goddess

38200 Posts

Posted - 2008-08-01 : 15:39:28
http://weblogs.sqlteam.com/tarad/archive/2008/05/21/60606.aspx

A new version is coming out in a few weeks once I finish testing on it.

Tara Kizer
Microsoft MVP for Windows Server System - SQL Server
http://weblogs.sqlteam.com/tarad/

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