Example: Online Restore of a Read/Write File (Full Recovery Model)

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This topic is relevant for SQL Server databases under the full recovery model that contain multiple files or filegroups.

In this example, a database named adb, which uses the full recovery model, contains three filegroups. Filegroup A is read/write, and filegroup B and filegroup C are read-only. Initially, all of the filegroups are online.

File a1 in filegroup A appears to be damaged, and the database administrator decides to restore it while the database remains online.

Note

Under the simple recovery model, online restore of read/write data is not allowed.

Restore Sequences

Note

The syntax for an online restore sequence is the same as for an offline restore sequence.

  1. Online restore of file a1.

    RESTORE DATABASE adb FILE='a1' FROM backup 
WITH NORECOVERY;

    At this point, file a1 is in the RESTORING state, and filegroup A is offline.

  2. After restoring the file, the database administrator takes a new log backup to make sure that the point at which the file went offline is captured.

    BACKUP LOG adb TO log_backup3;

  3. Online restore of log backups.

    The administrator restores all the log backups taken since the restored file backup, ending with the latest log backup (log_backup3, taken in step 2). After the last backup is restored, the database is recovered.

    RESTORE LOG adb FROM log_backup1 WITH NORECOVERY;
RESTORE LOG adb FROM log_backup2 WITH NORECOVERY;
RESTORE LOG adb FROM log_backup3 WITH NORECOVERY;
RESTORE LOG adb WITH RECOVERY;

    File a1 is now online.

Additional Examples

See Also

Reference

BACKUP (Transact-SQL)

RESTORE (Transact-SQL)

Concepts

Online Restore (SQL Server)

Piecemeal Restores (SQL Server)

Restore and Recovery Overview (SQL Server)

Apply Transaction Log Backups (SQL Server)