Edit

Options in the Back Up Database Task for Maintenance Plan

  • Article

Applies to: SQL Server

Use the Back Up Database Task dialog 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. This task allows you to perform full, differential, files and filegroups, and transaction log backups.

Options

  • Connection

    Select the server connection to use when performing this task.

  • New

    Create a new server connection to use when performing this task. The New Connection dialog box is described below.

  • Databases

    Specify the databases affected by this task. When selected, the dropdown list provides the following options: All databases, All system databases, All user databases, These specific databases.

    • All databases

      Generate a maintenance plan that runs maintenance tasks against all SQL Server databases.

    • All system databases (master, msdb, model)

      Generate a maintenance plan that runs maintenance tasks against each of the SQL Server system databases. No maintenance tasks are run against user-created databases.

    • All user databases (excluding master, model, msdb, tempdb)

      Generate a maintenance plan that runs maintenance tasks against all user-created databases. No maintenance tasks are run against the SQL Server system databases.

    • These databases

      Generate a maintenance plan that runs maintenance tasks against only those databases that are selected. At least one database in the list must be selected if this option is chosen.

  • Backup type

    Shows the type of backup to be performed.

  • 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 box, only specify Databases for the Backup components. To perform file or filegroup backups, create a task for each database.

  • Backup set will expire

    Specify when the backup set can be overwritten by another backup set.

  • Back up to

    Back up the database to a file or to tape. Only tape devices attached to the computer containing the database are available.

  • Back up databases across one or more files

    Select Add to open the Select Backup Destination dialog box, and provide one or more a disk location, or tape device.

  • If backup files exist

    Select Append to add this backup to the end of the file. Select Overwrite, to remove any old backup in the file and replace them with this new backup.

  • 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

    Select to place each database in a subfolder.

    Important

    Although maintenance plans can create subdirectories, maintenance tasks cannot delete subdirectories. This feature reduces the possibility of a malicious attack that uses the Maintenance Cleanup task to delete files.

    The subdirectory inherits 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.

  • Back up the tail of the log, and leave the database in the restoring state

    Perform a log backup as the last step before restoring a database. For more information, see Tail-Log Backups (SQL Server).

  • Set backup compression

    In SQL Server 2008 (10.0.x) Enterprise (or a later version), select one the following backup compression values:

    Value Description
    Use the default server setting Select to use the server-level default.

    This default is set by the backup compression default server-configuration option. For information about how to view the current setting of this option, see View or Configure the backup compression default Server Configuration Option.
    Compress backup Select to compress the backup, regardless of the server-level default.

    Important: By default, compression significantly increases CPU usage, and the additional CPU consumed by the compression process might adversely affect concurrent operations. Therefore, you might want to create low-priority compressed backups in a session whose CPU usage is limited by Resource Governor. For more information, see Use Resource Governor to Limit CPU Usage by Backup Compression (Transact-SQL).
    Do not compress backup Select to create an uncompressed backup, regardless of the server-level default.

  • View T-SQL

    View the Transact-SQL statements performed against the server for this task, based on the selected options.

    Note

    When the number of objects affected is large, this display can take a considerable amount of time.

New Connection dialog box

  • Connection name

    Enter a name for the new connection.

  • Select or enter a server name

    Select a server to connect to when performing this task.

  • Refresh

    Refresh the list of available servers.

  • Enter information to log on to the server

    Specify how to authenticate against the server.

  • Use Windows integrated security

    Connect to an instance of the SQL Server Database Engine with Microsoft Windows Authentication.

  • Use a specific user name and password

    Connect to an instance of the SQL Server Database Engine using SQL Server Authentication. This option isn't available.

  • User name

    Provide a SQL Server login to use when authenticating. This option isn't available.

  • Password

    Provide a password to use when authenticating. This option isn't available.

See also