Backup/Restore Microsoft SQL Database Offsite

This page describes how to use ABACUS ONLINE BACKUPS to backup your Microsoft SQL Database offsite and how you can restore your Microsoft SQL Database from the offsite backup files.

Backup/Restore Microsoft SQL Server 7.0 / 2000

This chapter will describe in details how to use ABACUS ONLINE BACKUPS to backup your Microsoft SQL Server 7.0 / 2000 server and how you can restore your Microsoft SQL Server 7.0 / 2000 server from the backup files.

Requirements

ABACUS ONLINE BACKUPS must be installed onto the computer running Microsoft SQL Server.

Data from Microsoft SQL Server will be backed up to a temporary directory before they are sent to Offsite Backup Server. Please make sure you have sufficient space on your computer to store these data when you run the backup job.

Considerations Before You Begin:

ABACUS ONLINE BACKUPS will backup your Microsoft SQL Server database(s) by taking the following steps:

Before running any backup activities, ABACUS ONLINE BACKUPS will run all Pre-Commands of the backup set.

For each database that is to be backed up, ABACUS ONLINE BACKUPS will issue a database / transaction log backup command to Microsoft SQL Server to backup each database to a Microsoft SQL Server database backup file (*.bak file) and save it in the temporary directory you specified.

After all *.bak files have been spooled to the temporary directories, ABACUS ONLINE BACKUPS will run all Post-Commands of the backup set.

Upload all files copied to the temporary directory to the Offsite Backup Server.

Remove temporary files from the temporary directory if [Setting] -> [Temporary Directory for storing backup files] is enabled

How to backup Microsoft SQL Server database(s) Offsite

Please follow the instructions below to backup your Microsoft SQL Server databases using ABACUS ONLINE BACKUPS.

Open ABACUS ONLINE BACKUPS
Right click ABACUS ONLINE BACKUPS icon available in the system tray and choose [Open]
Create a backup set
From the Menu, Choose [Backup Set] -> [New] -> [MS SQL Server Backup Set]
Enter a name for your backup set
Enter the Microsoft SQL Server administrator username and password
Select the database(s) you want to backup
Enter a temporary location to store the backup files before they are sent to an Offsite Backup Server
Set the backup schedule for full database backup and transaction log backup. Note: You can have more than one schedule in a backup set, i.e. you can perform intra-day transaction log backup by adding more than one daily transaction log backup schedule to your backup set.
Set the encryption algorithm, encryption mode and encrypting key for this backup set. (Hint: For maximum security, please select AES (Advanced Encryption Standard) Algorithm, CBC (Cipher Block Chaining) mode and use an encrypting key with more than 8 characters.)
Run the Offsite Backup.
Select the backup set you want to run on the left panel and press the [Start Backup] button (►)
Select the backup type (e.g. Complete, Differential, Transaction Log) you would like to perform
Select [Off-site Backup Server] to start backing up your files to an Offsite Backup Server.

How to restore Microsoft SQL Server database(s)

Please follow the instructions below to restore your Microsoft SQL Server databases from an Offsite Backup Server.

Download the backup files (.bak) from the Offsite Backup Server. Please refer to the [Quick Start - Backup File] section for information on how to download backup files from Offsite Backup Server.
Open Microsoft SQL Enterprise Manager. You can open Microsoft SQL Enterprise Manager from [Start Menu] -> [Program] -> [Microsoft SQL Server] -> [Enterprise Manager]
(Optional) Restore “master” database

You need to restore “master” database if you:
are rebuilding all your databases from scratch
have changing any server-wide or database configuration options
have added logins or other login security-related operations.
have created or removed logical backup devices.
have configured the server for distributed queries and remote procedure calls, such as adding linked servers or remote logins.
You do not need to restore your master database if you just want to restore a user database. For more information on Microsoft SQL Server “master” database, please visit http://www.microsoft.com/sql/.

To restore “master” database, please do the following:

Start Microsoft SQL Server in “Single User Mode”
Right click your Microsoft SQL Server and select [Properties]
Press the [Startup Parameters] button
Add a “-m” parameter to the [Startup Parameters]
Restart Microsoft SQL Server
From [Enterprise Manager], right click your Microsoft SQL Server and select [Stop] and then [Start].
Restore “master” database
From [Enterprise Manager] -> [Tools] -> [Restore Database]
Select [master] in the [Restore as database] drop down list
Select the [From device] radio button.
Press the [Select Devices] button.
From the [Choose Restore Devices], press the [Add] button.
From the [Choose Restore Destination] panel, press the […] button to choose your master backup (*.bak) from your backup files
Press the [OK] button, to start restoring the “master” database.
Restart Microsoft SQL Server in “Normal Mode”
Remove “-m” parameter from the [Startup Parameters] as in previous step
Restart your Microsoft SQL Server as in previous step
(Optional) Restore “model”, “msdb” and “distribution” database

You need to restore “model” database if you have changed the database template of your SQL Server.

You need to restore “msdb” database if you have changed the scheduling information or you want to restore the backup and restore history of your databases.

You need to restore “distribution” database if you are running the replication components of SQL Server.

You do not need to restore these databases if you just want to restore a user database. For more information on Microsoft SQL Server “model”, “msdb” and “distribution” database, please visit http://www.microsoft.com/sql/.
You need to restore each of these databases one by one. To restore any of these databases, please do the following:
From [Enterprise Manager] -> [Tools] -> [Restore Database]
Select the database to be restored in the [Restore as database] drop down list
Select the [From device] radio button.
Press the [Select Devices] button
Press the […] button to choose your backup files (*.bak) for the database to be restored
Press the [OK] button
Restore user database(s)

For each of the database you would like to restore,
From [Enterprise Manager] -> [Tools] -> [Restore Database]

Select the database to be restored in the [Restore as database] drop down list

Select the [Database] radio button.
From the [Show backups of database] drop down list, select the database to be restored
From the [First backup to restore] drop down list, select the snapshot of the database you would like to restore to. You can restore your database to the snapshot of your database at any point of the time between the time you did your full backup and the time you did your last subsequent backup.
Change the [Restore From] entry. If you backup files (*.bak) are not in the default directory, you need to update the full path to your backup files by pressing the [Properties] button.
Press the [OK] button
All database(s) restored successfully