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 Restoring database upto point of failure

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AskSQLTeam
Ask SQLTeam Question

0 Posts

Posted - 2005-03-09 : 08:10:38
Simon writes "Recently we had a disk crash (x2) on our RAID5 Dell server and as a result lost the entire container.
Fortunatley for us we had taken a full backup two hours earlier - and had the active transaction log on a seperate hard drive.
However when we came to restore the database we had lots of problems.
We first restored the database - but could not apply the active transaction log (we did not know how!)

When we consulted books-on-line it stated that we needed to backup this active transaction log - but we couldn't get SQL Enterprise manager to backup this log - as it was no longer associated with any database.

Could you help us with understanding how we would apply an active transaction log to a full backup - as this should then bring us back to the point of failure.

You will have to excuse some of the above terminology - although we use SQL everyday - it amazing what you take for granted.

Thanks and regards

Simon"

mr_mist
Grunnio

1870 Posts

Posted - 2005-03-09 : 08:42:53
Sounds like you could be out of luck there.

You may be able to get one of those log explorer programs to look through the log file, but I'm not sure.

-------
Moo. :)
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jason
Posting Yak Master

164 Posts

Posted - 2005-03-09 : 14:45:04
Hi Simon,

I feel your pain. Welcome to the world of DB recovery.

There aren't any MS SQL procedures for restoring an active transaction log to a restored database. The active database is the only object that uses the active log for recovery. Since you lost that on the RAID array, you may have to accept a few hours of lost data. Be thankful for your backup. I have worked with databases that allow you to translate the transaction log to SQL (Sybase) that can be re-run against that database, but I don't know of any such utility for MS SQL.

mr_mist, would the 'explorer program' you mention translate the log? If so, where would we find this program?

If you really need those lost hours you might consider contacting data recovery businesses to help you.
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jason
Posting Yak Master

164 Posts

Posted - 2005-03-09 : 15:15:32
Possibility on the log translation:

http://www.lumigent.com/products/le_sql.html

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Michael Valentine Jones
Yak DBA Kernel (pronounced Colonel)

7020 Posts

Posted - 2005-03-09 : 18:28:45

If you cannot afford to lose the data, you should run transaction log backups often, say every 10-15 minutes. You will have to put the databasse in full recovery mode.

This is fairly easy to setup with a database maintenance plan. You should make sure they are going to a different disk than the database files.




CODO ERGO SUM
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simc
Starting Member

1 Post

Posted - 2005-03-14 : 12:45:08
Many thanks to everyone who replied to my question.

I have now setup a transaction log backup ever 15 minutes - and am currently looking into using the explorer to interrogate the transaction log.

The one thing I have learnt from this is to try out your disaster recovery procedure BEFORE you actually have a disaster! Oh and also to make sure you are a member of SQLTeam website!!

Thanks again

Simon
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