Differential Backup

  • Hello Everyone

    Hope that you are having a good day.

    I am working on a plan for Disaster Recovery.

    My question is this:

    From Prod:

    Full Backups are taken weekly, and restored. The Differentials are taken daily, and the log backups are taken every 15 minutes, I then restore the log onto the DR database of the same name.

    Onto DR:

    Do I need to take once last log backup, to backup the tail of the log, before I restore the Differential Backup?

    After the Differential Restore, I want to continue restoring the logs.

    Or, should I just stick with restoring the logs all day long? I really do not see a need to restore the Differential if I am restoring the logs so often.

    Any info or advice would be greatly appreciated.

    Thank you in advance

    Andrew SQLDBA

  • i would restore the full backup weekly and restore the diffs daily. Restore the logs in the event of a DR switch (minimal work).

    -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    "Ya can't make an omelette without breaking just a few eggs" 😉

  • Our DR switch over is automatic. So I need to have both servers the same, and the data up to date.

    Andrew SQLDBA

  • Why are you manually implementing log shipping?

    Gail Shaw
    Microsoft Certified Master: SQL Server, MVP, M.Sc (Comp Sci)
    SQL In The Wild: Discussions on DB performance with occasional diversions into recoverability

    We walk in the dark places no others will enter
    We stand on the bridge and no one may pass
  • Because our DR box is behind the DR firewall, both boxes have the exact same name, only the IP address is different. I have done this in the past for the same situation. I would much rather use the Log Shipping that is built into SQL. It would be much more simple.

    Thanks Gila

    Andrew

  • As long as you are not bringing the DR system online, then all you need to restore is the log files. Which is what log shipping does for you.

    The only time you need to restore the full backup is to reset the process. At which point you would restore the latest available full backup, the latest differential, and all of the log files from that point to current.

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