Microsoft® SQL Server 2012 Unleashed

Using a Standby Server

If the ability to quickly recover from failure is crucial to your operation, you might consider implementing a standby server. Implementing a standby server involves backing up the production server and then restoring it to the standby server, leaving it in recovery mode. As transaction logs are backed up on the production server, they are applied to the standby server. If a failure occurs on the production server, the standby server can be recovered and used in place of the production server. If the production server is still running, you should not forget to back up the current log with the NO_TRUNCATE option and restore it to the standby server as well before bringing it online.

Note

Another advantage of restoring backups ...