Maintenance Plan Wizard (Define Backup Database Full Task Page)

Use the Define Backup Database Full Task page to add a backup task to the maintenance plan. Backing up the database is important in case of system or hardware failure (or user errors) that cause the database to be damaged in some way, thus requiring a backed-up copy to be restored.

Options

• Backup type
  Displays the type of backup to be performed.

• Databases
  Specify the databases affected by this task.

  • All databases
    Generate a maintenance plan that runs this task against all SQL Server databases, except tempdb.
  • All system databases
    Generate a maintenance plan that runs this task against each of the SQL Server system databases except tempdb. No maintenance tasks are run against user-created databases.
  • All user databases
    Generate a maintenance plan that runs this task against all user-created databases. No maintenance tasks are run against the SQL Server system databases.
  • These specific databases
    Generate a maintenance plan that runs this task against only those databases that are selected. At least one database in the list must be selected if this option is chosen.

• Backup component
  Select Database to back up the entire database. Select File and filegroups to back up only a portion of the database. If selected, provide the file or filegroup name. When multiple databases are selected in the Databases list box, only specify Databases for the Backup components. To perform file or filegroup backups, create a task for each database.

• Backup set will expire
  Specifies when the backup set for this backup can be overwritten. Select After and enter a number of days to expiration, or use the spin box. Select On and enter a date of expiration, or use the drop down calendar.

• Back up to
  Back up the database to disk or to tape. Only tape devices attached to the computer containing the database are available.

• Back up database(s) across one or more files
  Click Add to open the Select Backup Destination dialog box, and specify one or more disk locations, or tape device.

  Click Remove to remove a file from the box.

  Click Contents to read the file header and display the current backup contents of the file.

• If backup files exist
  Specify how to handle existing backups. Select Overwrite to remove the old content of a file or tape, and replace it with this new backup. Select Append to add the new backups after any existing backups in the file or on the tape.

• Create a backup file for every database
  Create a backup file in the location specified in the folder box. One file is created for each database selected.

• Create a sub-directory for each database
  Create a subdirectory under the specified disk directory that contains the database backup for each database being backed up as part of the maintenance plan.

  Important

  The subdirectory will inherit permissions from the parent directory. Restrict permissions to avoid unauthorized access.

• Folder
  Specify the folder to contain the automatically created database files.

• Backup file extension
  Specify the extension to use for the backup files. The default is .bak.

• Verify backup integrity
  Verify that the backup set is complete and that all volumes are readable.

See Also

Other Resources

BACKUP (Transact-SQL)

Help and Information

Getting SQL Server 2005 Assistance

Change History