sp_helpdevice (Transact-SQL)

SQL Server 2012

Reports information about Microsoft® SQL Server™ backup devices.

Important note Important

This feature will be removed in a future version of Microsoft SQL Server. Avoid using this feature in new development work, and plan to modify applications that currently use this feature. We recommend that you use the sys.backup_devices catalog view instead

Topic link icon Transact-SQL Syntax Conventions

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sp_helpdevice [ [ @devname = ] 'name' ]

[ @devname = ] 'name'

Is the name of the backup device for which information is reported. The value of name is always sysname.

0 (success) or 1 (failure)

Column name

Data type

Description

device_name

sysname

Logical device name.

physical_name

nvarchar(260)

Physical file name.

description

nvarchar(255)

Description of the device.

status

int

A number that corresponds to the status description in the description column.

cntrltype

smallint

Controller type of the device:

2 = Disk device

5 = Tape device

size

int

Device size in 2-KB pages.

If name is specified, sp_helpdevice displays information about the specified dump device. If name is not specified, sp_helpdevice displays information about all dump devices in the sys.backup_devices catalog view.

Dump devices are added to the system by using sp_addumpdevice.

Requires membership in the public role.

The following example reports information about all dump devices on an instance of SQL Server.

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EXEC sp_helpdevice;
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