Microsoft® SQL Server™ 2008 All-In-One Desk Reference For Dummies®

VIII.2.4. Backing Up and Restoring Information

Although we save this topic for last, in many ways the most important job of a database administrator is to provide a solid information backup and restore strategy. In this section, you see how to make the most of SQL Server's powerful built-in utilities to protect your information and restore your system in the event of a disaster or other data-damaging event. Also, stay tuned for the next section, where we show you how to use the SQL Server Maintenance Plan Wizard to automate many of the tasks shown in this segment.

We begin by exploring the backup utility. When you know that your data is safely archived, you can turn your attention to restoring a backed-up database. As you might imagine, the topic of data archiving and restoration could (and does) fill an entire book. In fact, there's an entire industry focused solely on information backup and restoration. Consequently, given the amount of available space in this book for this important topic, we focus only on relatively simple data backup and restoration scenarios.

Before designing and implementing a backup and restoration architecture for your production data, spend some time experimenting with sample databases. It's always better to make mistakes with test data than with live data.

VIII.2.4.1. Backing up data

As with many of the tools and utilities described throughout this ...