Backup - Full and Diff Question

  • I have an urgent question. I ran a full backup of a database on 11/26/11 and I ran differential backups each of the following nights until the next Friday, 12/2/11. On 12/2/11, the full backup failed. The next night, 12/3/11, the differential backup picked up and ran again. It ran successfully.

    My question is, will the differential run on 12/3/11 be valid for the full on 11/26/11 since the backup on 12/2/11 failed or will I have a broken chain.

    I'm hoping to find an answer before I have to take the time to do a restore only to find out it doesn't work. If it is a broken chain, I have another, but less desirable option, that I want to avoid.

    Thanks!

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  • As your last FULL backup (‘12/2/11’) was unsuccessful, it would be differential to ‘11/26/11’ FULL backup.

  • The note from Dev should be correct. However if you are worried, run another full now. If that full backup from 11/26 has issues, you might be stuck.

    Extra full backups are about managing risk. Those diffs are about managing space and the potential time savings in restores.

  • Thanks Dev and Steve. I am going forward with the idea that the full from the 26th and the diff from the 3rd are intact. I am also making sure we have a good, verified, full backup.

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  • Test the restore. Don't assume it's OK. Test it.

    "The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood"
    - Theodore Roosevelt

    Author of:
    SQL Server Execution Plans
    SQL Server Query Performance Tuning

  • When I said we were going ahead with the idea that the backup on the 26th and the diff on the 5th would be good, I meant that was the first thing I was going to do to verify that the backups are good. I was just trying to get insight about what might happen so I could decide on which option to take first in testing my theories.

    I did find out that, since the full backup on the 2nd failed, the full backup form the 26th and the diff from the 5th worked fine and everything is good (for now :hehe:).

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  • hawg (12/7/2011)


    When I said we were going ahead with the idea that the backup on the 26th and the diff on the 5th would be good, I meant that was the first thing I was going to do to verify that the backups are good. I was just trying to get insight about what might happen so I could decide on which option to take first in testing my theories.

    I did find out that, since the full backup on the 2nd failed, the full backup form the 26th and the diff from the 5th worked fine and everything is good (for now :hehe:).

    Cool!

    Sounds good. Thanks for reporting back. It's always nice to know how these things turn out.

    "The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood"
    - Theodore Roosevelt

    Author of:
    SQL Server Execution Plans
    SQL Server Query Performance Tuning

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