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AndrewW5

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SQL 2005 Backup to network location, with multiple fulls and tlogs

All,

I am backing up my DB and t-logs to backup devices that refer to a network location (UNC.) They work well.

Each new daily full backup overwites the previous file.  This leaves me in an bad spot if the SQL server catches fire during the backup process, among other weaknesses.

What I'd prefer to do is backup the DB to a different file every day of the week, repeating.  So every Monday I'd back up to the Monday.bak.  If sever catches fire during this process, I restore Sunday.bak. Since the Monday.bak didn't complete, I should still have the t-logs running since Sunday.bak, right?

I am able to do this with multiple backup jobs pointing to multiple backup devices.  This is much work when expanded to include all of our DB across all our servers.

Is there a canned plan that can accomodate what we want?

Thanks in advance.

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pbarry1

Hi,

Yes, just use a Backup Maintenance Plan (use the Maintenance Plan Wizard under "Management / Maintenance Plan) in SQL Server Management Studio.

You can configure the retention period, etc...
One thing to consider: make sure you have the latest SP installed.  Previous versions of SQL 2005 were very messy for these kind of maintenance plans.
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I have SP3 installed.  

I couldn't figure out how to apply retention period for my purposes.  In tests it just overwrote the same file.
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pbarry1

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No, I don't at all.  Let me try that!
It requires me to set a file name.  I can't put a path without a file name in either Backup Devices or in Select Backup Destination. I must be going about this in the wrong way?
I'm in the plan wizard now.  It may be what I needed.
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And do the same for your LOG backups...  (either in a subplan or in another maintenance plan).