30Sep 2024 by Grant Fritchey 5 Comments

The Only Valid Test of a Backup is a Restore

Professional Development
Please, let me reiterate: The only valid test of a backup is a restore. THE ONLY VALID TEST OF A BACKUP IS A RESTORE. I'm happy that you have backups. That's great. Can you restore them? Let's tell a story. I Play With Radios "WE KNOW! SHUT UP ABOUT IT! Damn radio people. Worse than crossfitters." Cool, cool! I won't get into the radio stuff.... too much. Just a quick setup. Please bear with me. There's an organization in the US, American Radio Relay League (ARRL). Founded back in the dawn of time, more or less the first radio club. Now, the ARRL does a lot of stuff for radio users in the US, but also everywhere, but there's controversy (when isn't there). One thing they did was build this…
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04Nov 2022 by Grant Fritchey No Comments

Validating Backups: PGSQL Phriday #002

PostgreSQL
It's time again for the another PGSQL Phriday, this time, the question has been asked: How do you do PostgreSQL backups? Honesty up front. I'm very much just beginning my journey of learning PostgreSQL. I've been documenting that learning over here at Simple-Talk (more on the way there), including backups. For this post, I'm not going to tell you about my "experience" maintaining a PostgreSQL backup routine because, well, there isn't any. Instead, I have something else to say about backups that I learned, the hard way I might add, while working in SQL Server, that is 100% applicable to PostgreSQL. Backups Do Not Matter You heard me. In a post that's supposed to be about how you do backups, I'm telling you backups don't matter, and yeah, I'm serious.…
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11Jan 2012 by Grant Fritchey 10 Comments

Database Backups: Things You Need To Do Now

SQL Server, T-SQL
I want to say a few things about database backups that you need to know. Wait a minute, haven’t you written about backups before? Why, yes. Yes I have. Aaand… you’re doing it again because? Have you noticed the shocking number of questions that come up on SQL Server Central and #sqlhelp regarding backups? Have you noticed the incredibly huge number of people who don’t have backups at all? That’s why. To get the word out. Oh, good point. Carry on. Because backups are so easy, people tend to discount them. That is, until they need them. Then, suddenly, they become extremely important. Here’s a suggestion: Make databases important now. Learn how SQL Server backup works. Make sure you have backups on your systems. Make sure you have the appropriate…
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13Jan 2009 by Grant Fritchey No Comments

Red Gate Crib Sheet Compendium

SQL Server, T-SQL
Red Gate has compiled a bunch of it's Cribsheets into a single E-book, the SQL Server Cribsheet Compendium. It's pretty cool. I've got two entries in there, performance tuning and backups & restores, along with great articles from Robyn Page, Phil Factor, Robert Sheldon and Amirthalingam Prasanna, pretty heady company. It's worth a look.
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