transaction log backup - point in time recovery

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transaction log backup - point in time recovery

chewychewy

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January 15, 2013 at 8:56 pm

#268721

Hi Guys,
Just curious will point in time recovery work in this case?
(1) Monday 2am - Transaction log backup via maintenance plan to disk
(2) Monday 7pm - full backup via maintenance plan to disk
(3) Monday 10pm - full backup to tape via 3rd party backup software, eg: backup exec, arc serve
(4) Tuesday 2am - Transaction log backup via maintenance plan to disk
Tuesday 3am - Users complain and want us to perform point in time recovery till tuesday 2am due to some data error.
If this is the case, can i use the full backup (2) with the transaction log taken at (4) to perform point in time recovery? I can't get (3) as the tape has some problem.
thanks

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Lynn Pettis SSC Guru Points: 442467 More actions · Answer 1

chewychewy (1/15/2013)
Hi Guys,
Just curious will point in time recovery work in this case?
(1) Monday 2am - Transaction log backup via maintenance plan to disk
(2) Monday 7pm - full backup via maintenance plan to disk
(3) Monday 10pm - full backup to tape via 3rd party backup software, eg: backup exec, arc serve
(4) Tuesday 2am - Transaction log backup via maintenance plan to disk
Tuesday 3am - Users complain and want us to perform point in time recovery till tuesday 2am due to some data error.
If this is the case, can i use the full backup (2) with the transaction log taken at (4) to perform point in time recovery? I can't get (3) as the tape has some problem.
thanks

Yes, you should. Full backups should not break the log chain.

chewychewy Hall of Fame Points: 3126 More actions · Answer 2

thanks Lynn.

Have u used backup exec or arc serve before?

1. Daily full backup via backup exec to tape at 9pm.

This tape will be send offsite for safe keeping.

2. Daily full db backup to filesystem via SQL Maintenance Plan at 9pm

3. 5 hourly interval db transaction logs backup via backup exec to tape.

This tape will be onsite

I heard with this, I can't do point in time recovery using option 2 and 3.

Seems like backup exec doesn't have an option to restore the transaction logs to file system, for us to

using it with option 2.

Any idea?

thanks

Lynn Pettis SSC Guru Points: 442467 More actions · Answer 3

chewychewy (1/15/2013)
thanks Lynn.
Have u used backup exec or arc serve before?
1. Daily full backup via backup exec to tape at 9pm.
This tape will be send offsite for safe keeping.
2. Daily full db backup to filesystem via SQL Maintenance Plan at 9pm
3. 5 hourly interval db transaction logs backup via backup exec to tape.
This tape will be onsite
I heard with this, I can't do point in time recovery using option 2 and 3.
Seems like backup exec doesn't have an option to restore the transaction logs to file system, for us to
using it with option 2.
Any idea?
thanks

You will have to use the native RESTORE WITH NORECOVERY to restore the full backup and backup exec's RESTORE LOG (with norecovery if more than one log file) to restore the log files directly to the database. Backups directly to tape are not like a backup to disk and then a backup of that file to tape.

Lynn Pettis SSC Guru Points: 442467 More actions · Answer 4

Note, it the above does not work, you may want to revisit your backup scheme and use either native backups to disk then backup those files to tape, or use backup exec for all your backup needs.

Personally, I prefer the first over the latter.

chewychewy Hall of Fame Points: 3126 More actions · Answer 5

chewychewy

Hall of Fame

Points: 3126

January 15, 2013 at 9:16 pm

#1577611

thanks for ur kind advise.

chewychewy Hall of Fame Points: 3126 More actions · Answer 6

Hi Lynn,

What do u think of this article?

http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=TECH58674

==

This issue occurs because the Log Sequence Number (LSN) for SQL is reset by the other backup application. So subsequent differential or log backups performed by BEWS are relative to the other backup application instead of the original BEWS Full backup. The subsequent differential or log backups are thus rendered unrecoverable by BEWS, because it is unable to use the backup sets created by the other backup application.

==

thanks

Lynn Pettis SSC Guru Points: 442467 More actions · Answer 7

chewychewy (1/15/2013)
Hi Lynn,
What do u think of this article?
http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=TECH58674
==
This issue occurs because the Log Sequence Number (LSN) for SQL is reset by the other backup application. So subsequent differential or log backups performed by BEWS are relative to the other backup application instead of the original BEWS Full backup. The subsequent differential or log backups are thus rendered unrecoverable by BEWS, because it is unable to use the backup sets created by the other backup application.
==
thanks

Looks like Backup Exec doesn't play nice. If this is true, you need to decide how you want your backups done, either use the native backup process (Full/Diff/T-Log) or use Backup Exec for them all.

Personally, I have always insisted on running the native backups (even used it with HyperBac) and then I would have the backup files copied to tape. I also preferred to have all backups done to local disk (or SAN disk allocated to the server) then move the files to other network resources for storage and archival to tape.