The Importance of Validating Backups

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The Importance of Validating Backups

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Grant Fritchey SSC Guru Points: 398890 More actions · Answer 1

Without resorting to a third party software, you can't. The only way to access a backup is to restore it.

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Shahin Mr or Mrs. 500 Points: 538 More actions · Answer 2

Thanks for the update,

We have a 3rd party application that uses SQL 2008 R2 database, we Backup the production databases and then with a 3rd party application backup exec put them on the tape. I will restore one of these backup sets from tape to a network drive and then retore this .bak file on a developer machine. my question,

How can I check the integrity of this restored database without using our 3rd application to read the data? or when restore process finish without any error this would means everything should work.

Thanks

Michael Meierruth SSChampion Points: 10051 More actions · Answer 3

To complete what Grant said, if you do a restore of a backup and get no errors all is ok.

chrisfradenburg SSCrazy Eights Points: 9592 More actions · Answer 4

Shahin (1/7/2014)
How can I check the integrity of this restored database without using our 3rd application to read the data? or when restore process finish without any error this would means everything should work.

There are really three levels that need to be checked. First, that the backup isn't corrupt and can be restored. Restoring as you described will do that. Second, that the data inside the database isn't corrupt according to SQL. Running dbcc checkdb on the database will confirm that. However, there could be data inside the database that the application can't handle. If you're doing routine checks don't worry about this level. While the first two levels are easy to check this one is much more difficult to do so most people don't worry about doing it routinely. If you're trying to troubleshoot an issue you may need to point the application at it somehow and test to see if the issue still happens.

Shahin Mr or Mrs. 500 Points: 538 More actions · Answer 5

Thank you all for your detailed information. 🙂 appreciate it.

Shahin

quackhandle1975 SSChampion Points: 11055 More actions · Answer 6

Great article, all newbie (and the seasoned pros!) should read, digest and follow the steps.

qh

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