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Introduction
SQL Server provides vital functionality to hundreds of thousands of organizations worldwide. However, without the right precautions, any system can fail and result in catastrophic loss of data. Thus, planning for disaster recovery is not just optional but quintessential. The following blog post outlines best practices for SQL Server Disaster Recovery with appropriate code examples.
1. Backups
Regular backups are the cornerstone of any disaster recovery plan. They protect against data loss due to system crashes, hardware failures and human errors. SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) provides inbuilt functions for taking a full backup of a database.
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-- Creating a Full Backup BACKUP DATABASE [YourDatabase] TO DISK = N'C:\Backups\YourDatabase.bak' WITH FORMAT, INIT, NAME = N'YourDatabase-Full Database Backup', SKIP, NOREWIND, NOUNLOAD, STATS = 10 GO |
2. Implementing Redundancy
Redundancy involves creating duplicate data and capabilities to ensure service continuity during a disaster. Implementing redundancy helps to minimize downtime and service interruptions. This can be achieved in SQL Server through database mirroring, replication, or log shipping.
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-- Setting Up Log Shipping EXEC m<a href="mailto:aster.dbo.sp_add_log_shipping_primary_database @database" >aster.dbo.sp_add_log_shipping_primary_database @database</a> = N'YourDatabase', @backup_directory = N'C:\Backups', @backup_share = N'\\network_path\Backups', @backup_job_name = N'LogShippingBackupJob', @backup_retention_period = 1440, @backup_threshold = 60, @threshold_alert = 0, @threshold_alert_enabled = 0, @history_retention_period = 1440, @backup_compression = 1 GO |
3. Regular Testing
Testing your disaster recovery plan regularly can help identify potential issues before they turn into problems during a real disaster. You can perform this by running DBCC CHECKDB commands which checks the logical and physical integrity of all the objects in the specified database.
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-- Running DBCC CHECKDB DBCC CHECKDB('YourDatabase') WITH NO_INFOMSGS, ALL_ERRORMSGS GO |
Conclusion
Recovering from a database disaster is a stressful situation, but you can mitigate the risks by implementing and testing regular backups, implementing redundancy, and periodically checking database integrity. Following these best practices can drastically reduce the probability and severity of data loss during a disaster.