At many organizations I doubt red lights flash with the sound of blaring

sirens when backups fail in production environments, but I believe at every

organization backups are one of the most critical IT functions. Of all backups,

database backups, by most accounts, are considered the most critical. I know

this is certainly true for me as a SQL Server DBA. I am sure at one point in all

of our careers we were too busy to check all of our backups across all SQL

Servers, with a million responsibilities on a daily basis. I know some of us

were lucky and made it unscathed, while others were not so lucky with backup

failures that caused extensive data loss and long downtimes. Now when IT

Departments are forced to “do more with less,” it is time to put the necessary

SQL Server Alerts in place for backup and restore operations in order to more

easily monitor and streamline this critical process.

SQL Server Backup Needs

With the recent introduction of SQL LiteSpeed (www.sqllitespeed.com) to the

SQL Server community by DBAssociatesIT, the compression and encryption

capabilities are mind boggling as compared to the native SQL Server backup

solutions. Backup time savings are generally 50% faster, with some organizations

seeing up to a 95% improvement; restore times are generally 30% faster, with

some organizations seeing up to a 50% improvement; and 128 bit encryption

capabilities are available to protect your biggest corporate asset, your data.3

These types of capabilities for SQL Server are mouth watering to DBA's for

backups and restorations in Disaster Recovery scenarios, IT Pro’s responsible

for Storage Management and Security Professionals fearful of the clear text SQL

Server backups. With all of these advantages, how would I as the DBA,

responsible for backups, obtain notification with successful or failed backups?

In this article we are going to explore the valuable SQL Server Alerts for SQL

Server backups and restore.

SQL Server Agent Core Components

Before we jump into database backup and restore Alerts, I want to introduce

the core components of the SQL Server Agent Service, which I am certain are

familiar to all DBAs. SQL Server Agent is primarily responsible for the Alerts,

Operators and Jobs. Just as the Master database is primarily the storage for the

“MSSQLServer” service, the MSDB database is the primary storage for the

“SQLServerAgent” Service with tables such as sysalerts, sysoperators and sysjobs.

To extend the functionality of the SQL Server Agent, both the Enterprise Manager

and system stored procedures can be leverage to:

• Setup SQL Server Alerts, Operators and Jobs

• Configure SQL Server Agent Mail

• Establish a Fail Safe Operator

• Event Forwarding to a centralized SQL Server

An outstanding resource for the interrelationships between Alerts, Operators and

Jobs is the SQL Server 2000 Books Online article - SQL Server Agent Service.

This article provides a high level overview of the SQL Server Agent Service, the

general architecture and interrelationships among the components1. For

additional information about these items, review the following SQL Server Books

Online articles:

• Defining Alerts

• How to set up a SQL Server database alert (Windows2000)

• Defining Operators

• Creating Jobs

• SQL Mail

• How to designate a fail-safe operator (Enterprise Manager)

• How to designate an events forwarding server (Enterprise Manager)

The 15 Critical Backup and Restore Alerts

At Edgewood Solutions, our DBA best practices dictate that Alerts should be

setup and configured for SQL Server backups. Needless to say, alerts provide

DBA's with a proactive means of validating core business processes such as

backups. They also offer peace of mind for the staff on a daily basis as well as

a reasonable level of assurance for the organization. Below outlines a baseline

set of backup and restore Alerts that can be leveraged with SQL LiteSpeed to

verify the backup and restore operations:

For a script to setup “The 15 Critical Backup and Restore Alerts” for SQL Server

2000 visit - 15CriticalBackupRestoreAlerts.sql

Conclusion

For DBAs supporting critical production environments for organizations,

backups are a critical component of daily operations. As the number of SQL

Servers grow at your organization, it is then necessary to automate the

monitoring of daily backup operations via Alerts and Operators to streamline

critical daily processes. Luckily, SQL Server environments can benefit from SQL

LiteSpeed with significant disk and time savings as well as protection from 128

bit encryption. Leverage SQL LiteSpeed as a diligent DBA, savvy Storage

Administrator and protective Security Professional to gain valuable time, save

critical storage and protect precious data!

Additional Information

For additional information about SQL LiteSpeed visit the following URLs:

• Download a SQL LiteSpeed Trial –

www.edgewoodsolutions.com/partners/dbassociates.asp

• Backup and Restore – Back to Basics with SQL LiteSpeed –

www.edgewoodsolutions.com/resources/BackupAndRestoreLiteSpeed.asp

• Integrating SQL LiteSpeed in your existing Backup Infrastructure -

www.edgewoodsolutions.com/resources/IntegratingSQLLiteSpeed.asp

• Spotlight - SQL LiteSpeed Return on Investment -

www.edgewoodsolutions.com/resources/LiteSpeedROI.asp

• DBAssociatesIT the maker of SQL LiteSpeed -

www.sqllitespeed.com

Resources

1. SQL Server Agent Service - SQL Server 2000 Books Online - Microsoft

Corporation – Published January 2003 – Accessed - 06.16.2003

2. Error Message Severity Levels - SQL Server 2000 Books Online - Microsoft

Corporation – Published January 2003 – Accessed - 06.16.2003

3. SQL LiteSpeed web site – www.sqllitespeed.com – DBAssociatesIT – Accessed

06.16.2003

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