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Category: Backups

Test those Backups

Published 2024-10-01 by Kevin Feasel

Grant Fritchey provides an important public service announcement:

Please, let me reiterate: The only valid test of a backup is a restore.

THE

ONLY

VALID

TEST

OF

A

BACKUP

IS

A

RESTORE.

Grant is absolutely correct here. And do you know how hard it is to test a SQL Server backup? With dbatools, it’s this hard: Test-DbaLastBackup. That one cmdlet restores a backup (under a different name so it doesn’t clobber your existing database), runs DBCC CHECKDB against the restored data, drops the test database after the fact, and even allows you to do all of that against a different SQL Server instance.

Incidentally, my next YouTube series just happens to be around backup and restoration in SQL Server, so stay tuned if you’re interested.

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Azure Database for PostgreSQL Backup and Restoration

Published 2024-09-26 by Kevin Feasel

Josephine Bush makes and restores a backup:

I wanted to test a migration of Azure PostgreSQL from simple to flexible. I wanted a simple db to restore onto my single server. I may not have needed to do this, but I was then curious how one would go about dumping and restoring on Azure Postgres in general. I plan to use the Azure migration service, but since I started this dump/restore exercise, I thought I would document it here.

Read on for the process.

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pgBackRest and Standby Server Backups

Published 2024-09-23 by Kevin Feasel

Stefan Fercot does some explaining:

Recently, we’ve received many questions about how to take backups from a standby server using pgBackRest. In this post, I’d like to clarify one of the most frequently asked questions and address a common misconception for new users.

First of all, it’s important to understand that taking a backup exclusively from the standby server is not currently possible. When you trigger a backup from the standby, pgBackRest creates a standby backup that is identical to a backup performed on the primary. It does this by starting/stopping the backup on the primary, copying only files that are replicated from the standby, then copying the remaining few files from the primary.

Read on to learn more and to see an example of how this works.

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External References in Data-Tier Applications

Published 2024-09-16 by Kevin Feasel

Andy Brownsword needs to make a call out:

One method for transferring a database to a different environment is using a Data-Tier Application – in the form of a DACPAC (for schema) or BACPAC (for schema and data).

Trying to use this approach with multi-database solutions is a challenge though as Data-Tier Applications don’t play nicely with cross-database objects.

Let’s look at how we can ease that pain.

Read on for the solution.

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Point-in-Time Recovery with Postgres

Published 2024-09-10 by Kevin Feasel

Grant Fritchey restores some backups:

PostgreSQL has the capabilities to support backups as I already described in my first article on the topic. PostgreSQL also has the capability to restore to a point in time. However, that does require you to change the way you’re performing your backups. This article advances our understanding of how to better protect your PostgreSQL databases by expanding on the database backups and restores into a more full-blown disaster recovery process through point in time restores.

While the important part is the restore, in a classic chicken or egg conundrum, we can’t talk about restoring until we first have a backup, so I’ll start with how you need to backup your databases in preparation for a point in time restore.

Click through for the process and to see it in action.

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T-SQL Snapshot Point-in-Time Recovery to Azure VM

Published 2024-09-05 by Kevin Feasel

Anthony Nocentino continues a series on T-SQL snapshot backups:

In this post, the third in our series on using T-SQL Snapshot Backup, I will guide you through using the new T-SQL Snapshot Backup feature in SQL Server 2022 to take a snapshot backup and then perform point-in-time database restores using that snapshot backup as the base, but this time using an Azure Virtual Machine. We will explore how to manage Azure storage-level operations, such as taking snapshots, cloning snapshots, and executing an instantaneous point-in-time database restore from the snapshot with minimal impact on your infrastructure. Additionally, I will demonstrate a PowerShell script that utilizes dbatools and Azure Az modules to automate the process.

Read on for the script and plenty of details.

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Thoughts on T-SQL Snapshot Backups

Published 2024-09-04 by Kevin Feasel

Anthony Nocentino has a two-parter for us. First is the idea of how T-SQL snapshot backups work:

Traditional SQL Server backups can struggle with large databases, resulting in longer backup times and resource contention. T-SQL Snapshot Backup, a new feature in SQL Server 2022, addresses these challenges by allowing storage-based snapshots to be coordinated through T-SQL. This feature delivers faster, more efficient backups, especially for large-scale environments with the most aggressive of recovery objectives.

The follow-up is for point-in-time recovery from a T-SQL snapshot backup:

In this post, the second in our series, I will guide you through using the new T-SQL Snapshot Backup feature in SQL Server 2022 to take a snapshot backup and perform point-in-time database restores using a snapshot backup as the base of the restore. We will explore how to manage storage-level operations, such as cloning snapshots and executing an instantaneous point-in-time restore of a database from the snapshot with minimal impact on your infrastructure. Additionally, I will demonstrate a PowerShell script that utilizes dbatools and the PureStoragePowerShellSDK2 modules to automate the process.

Check out both posts and be on the lookout for subsequent entries in the series.

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pg_dump and the Backup Tool Debate

Published 2024-08-26 by Kevin Feasel

Gulcin Yildirim Jelinek explains the debate around whether pg_dump is a backup tool or not:

Recently, while writing about the vulnerability affecting pg_dump, the topic of decommissioning pg_dump came up on Twitter. Unlike the nostalgic feelings many had for Pluto, there was less reluctance to see pg_dump reclassified. In fact, some people were eager to retire it as a backup utility, and I even got a bit of pushback for still referring to pg_dump as one

I was talking to my colleague Simona the other day, and she mentioned that everybody in Postgres circles says, “pg_dump is not a backup tool,” but perhaps it’s not always explained well why it is not.

Read on for that explanation.

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