Backup methodologies

We have a backup plan that seems to be working quite well. My question is
more related to ease of using these in case of a restore. Currently we do
full backups weekly, diffs daily and hourly logs. This leaves alot of files
hanging around to manage. I've been testing on my workstation to try having
each days full backup or dif appended with the hourly logs in one file per
day. This is easily restored from script or GUI and seems so much more
manageable. Does it really matter either way functionally? I would worry
more about file corruption but if any single file had this in our current
scheme we'd have problems anyway.
Just curious how "most" prefer to do this....
Thanks!!"Tim Greenwood" <tim_greenwood AT yahoo DOT com> wrote in message
news:u2GcJxefHHA.3928@.TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...
> We have a backup plan that seems to be working quite well. My question
> is more related to ease of using these in case of a restore. Currently we
> do full backups weekly, diffs daily and hourly logs. This leaves alot of
> files hanging around to manage. I've been testing on my workstation to
> try having each days full backup or dif appended with the hourly logs in
> one file per day. This is easily restored from script or GUI and seems so
> much more manageable. Does it really matter either way functionally? I
> would worry more about file corruption but if any single file had this in
> our current scheme we'd have problems anyway.
> Just curious how "most" prefer to do this....
Well most seem to prefer to ignore the problem until the DB crashes and the
CEO is breathing down their neck to restore everything. ;-)
If I can... I like to setup log-shipping (even if homegrown). This is a
real good way to make sure I can write AND read the files.
Otherwise, I tend to prefer separate files and then script stuff out.
> Thanks!!
>
Greg Moore
SQL Server DBA Consulting Remote and Onsite available!
Email: sql (at) greenms.com http://www.greenms.com/sqlserver.html|||I always have the separate files - I like the reassurance of seeing separate
files accumulate and which can easile be sorted by date so I know things are
happening correctly. Like Greg I like log shipping when the kit is
available, but in your cast this won't be an option if you want the
differentials to be used also.
Cheers,
Paul Ibison SQL Server MVP, www.replicationanswers.com