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 2005 backup

Author  Topic 

fmardani
Constraint Violating Yak Guru

433 Posts

Posted - 2007-03-15 : 06:07:40
I have ctreated a maintenance plan to backup a database daily.
The option is set to overwrite.

1)
How is it possible to allow for say four days of backup files to remain but any older backups to be deleted. At present I only get one file which gets overwritten every day.

2)
What does the Append database option do? I know that it increases the backup file size on every backup. Not sure what that does to the file internally. i.e. why doe the file size increase even if there has not been any activity on the database on that day?

Thanks

SwePeso
Patron Saint of Lost Yaks

30421 Posts

Posted - 2007-03-15 : 06:09:53
1) Yes. It is called retention days.


Peter Larsson
Helsingborg, Sweden
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fmardani
Constraint Violating Yak Guru

433 Posts

Posted - 2007-03-15 : 06:26:47
Apologies but do not follow your answer.
I guess you replied to question number 1. Where do i see this option please?
Thanks
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SwePeso
Patron Saint of Lost Yaks

30421 Posts

Posted - 2007-03-15 : 06:34:40
Select PROPERTIES for the server in SSMS in Object Explorer.
Go to DATABASE SETTINGS and look for "Default backup media retention (in days)" option.

Please note this is a global setting! All backups for this server inherits this setting.


Peter Larsson
Helsingborg, Sweden
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fmardani
Constraint Violating Yak Guru

433 Posts

Posted - 2007-03-15 : 06:48:46
Found it.
Set it to 4 days.
Does this mean that up to 4 days old the files will be kept. Any older ones will be deleted?
Tahnks
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Kristen
Test

22859 Posts

Posted - 2007-03-15 : 10:23:42
It probably only applies to new backups that your make - the old ones will already have whatever the default retention days was when they were made.

Kristen
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drewsalem
Constraint Violating Yak Guru

304 Posts

Posted - 2007-03-15 : 10:49:54
Are you aware there is a "Remove files older than..." option in the actual maintenance plan. This will only apply to the database. If you back up your system tables once a week, then setting the global setting to 4 days will delete your system backups (assuming you want to keep them for, say, 4 weeks), but specifying it in the maintenance plan means that each different plan can have a different number of retention days.

Drew
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fmardani
Constraint Violating Yak Guru

433 Posts

Posted - 2007-03-15 : 11:18:41
in the maintenance plan I do not see the option for "Remove files older than..." Where is it please?
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drewsalem
Constraint Violating Yak Guru

304 Posts

Posted - 2007-03-15 : 11:28:19
Have you used the wizard or did you create the maint plan manually?

Drew
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fmardani
Constraint Violating Yak Guru

433 Posts

Posted - 2007-03-15 : 11:35:43
Manual
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drewsalem
Constraint Violating Yak Guru

304 Posts

Posted - 2007-03-15 : 12:15:46
quote:
Manual


In that case, there is a tool called Maintenance Cleanup task in the Toolbox that will allow you to specify how many days before deleting files. Just drag and drop it to your plan and link it up after any backups that are currently in your plan.

But if you have already installed service pack 2, I recommend you install service pack 2 again first as this feature comes with a bug. Once you've installed service pack 2, I'm afraid you'll have to recreate the plan.

Details on the bug can be found here:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/933508

http://blogs.msdn.com/sqlrem/archive/2007/02/24/Maintenance-Plan-Changes-in-SQL-Server-2005-SP2.aspx



Drew
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