Backup Device (Media Contents Page)

Use the Backup Device dialog box to view the backup information. This information describes the device, the media, the media set, and the backup set or sets. For more information, see Backup Devices and Using Backup Media.

To use SQL Server Management Studio to view the contents of a backup device

Options

View information about the individual media, media set, and backup sets.

  • Media
    A disk or set of tapes on which backup information is stored.

  • Media sequence
    Lists the media sequence number, the family sequence number, and the mirror identifier, if any. The physical backup media are each tagged with a media sequence number that indicates the order in which the media were used. The initial backup media is tagged with 1, the second (the first continuation tape) is tagged with 2, and so forth. When the backup set is restored, the media sequence numbers ensure that the operator restoring the backup mounts the correct media in the correct order.

    Note

    In Microsoft SQL Server 7.0 and SQL Server 2000, the media sequence information was limited to media and family information.

  • Created on
    Displays the creation date and time of the media set.

  • Media Set
    A media set is an ordered collection of backup media to which one or more backup operations have written by using a constant number of backup devices.

  • Name
    Displays the name of the media set, if any.

  • Description
    Displays the description of the media set, if any.

  • Media family count
    Displays the number of families in the media set. Each media set is a collection of one or more media families. All the output to a given single backup device (or group of mirrored backup devices) forms a single media family. Each media set contains one media family per separate device (or group of mirrored devices); for instance, if a media set uses two non-mirrored backup devices, the media set contains two media families.

  • Backup sets
    Displays information about the backup set or sets contained on the media. A backup set is the result of a successful backup operation, whose content is distributed among the media on the set of backup devices.

    Header

    Values

    Name

    The name of the backup set.

    Type

    The type of backup performed: Full, Differential or Transaction Log.

    Component

    The backed-up component: Database, File, or <blank> (for transaction logs).

    Server

    The name of the instance of the Database Engine that performed the backup operation.

    Database

    The name of the database that was backed up.

    Position

    The position of the backup set in the volume.

    Date

    The date and time when the backup operation finished, presented in the regional setting of the client.

    Size

    The size of the backup set in bytes.

    User Name

    The name of the user who performed the backup operation.

    Expiration

    The date and time the backup set expires.

See Also

Concepts

Other Resources