Customer Reviews

SQL Server Backup and Recovery: Tools and Techniques

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Just got back from the book store and spent a bit reading this book. It's actually quite good. McBath makes the assumption that you are a DBA. Not someone who reads Gartner reports and goes to meetings.

I've become accustomed to a wide variety of lame backup and recovery books. A good example is Anil Desai's... long on planning, but short on how to actually do the work. In his book, backups don't actually start till chapter 6! Easily 2/3 of the book is fluff.

For example, Desai talks about log shipping-- 5 pages. McBath has a whole chapter on it in a how-to format. BOL doesn't cover it in depth, and where it does, it's wrong (ie. sp_change_primary_role example is wrong on fail over). SQL Server Resource Kit has a whole chapter on it, but not one example of how to implement. Long on theory, short on getting it done-- typical of MS Press books.

The book covers just about all the methods for backing up and recovery using standard tools. It also covers using DBCC to recovery data. Then it expands out into rebuilding your stuff from scratch and reloading it (ex. I lost my master database and here's what I got to do).

McBath's book tells you what breaks along the way and how to fix it. Anyone who's had to rebuild master and got in that infinite loop problem knows the hard way. McBath tells you about the problem *BEFORE* you hit it and how to work around it. The Desai book doesn't even tell you how to properly bring the SQL Server into single user.

This is also the only book out there... including Delaney's... that actually flow charts the sequence of events on how a backup and recovery actually work internally. LSN's, GAM Pages, etc... That way you get the theory as well as the practical I-got-to-get-my-job-done stuff.

The section on DBCCs is the first place I've seen where it's pretty much explained well. Delaney's book is also great here, but McBath put's it in context for recovery of data. The straight dope is here. It's dialed in right.

Another interesting point was he shows you the output of the scripts. That way you can see what it's supposed to do *BEFORE* you do it on your box. By doing this, he's also showing you that the scripts have been tested and run, too.

What I liked most was that it used the GUI and T-SQL scripts. This is great cause most people use a GUI which you can't script in SQL Agent, etc...

What's also cool is the Mohan/Narang paper as the appendix. Mohan outlined the ARIES Write Ahead Log (WAL) protocol recovery mechanism that SQL Server is premised upon. I wish there was more intro to it here. It's just tacked on the back. But this is just gold.

Stuff missing that would be cool: Covering third party tools like Legato. In a major data center, they are mandatory.

Finally a book for SQL Server that rivals Oracle Press's long standing tome on Backup and Recovery by Velpuri.

McBath's book is non-stop backup and recovery issues from beginning to end.

McBath's book highlights common problems and provides practical workarounds for Backup/restore
The Book shows some very cool tricks that make it possible to recover data that's lost due to media
failures. It also covers data recovery tricks by using indexes. It continues about explaining what
to do when you need to rebuild your machine from scratch. Common problems are discussed and workarounds
given. The book is full of examples and tips and tricks from REAL consulting, not rehashing a manual
or Books on line. These tips give the book even more value.

What I liked most was that it describes using the GUI and T-SQL scripts. A GUI is nice but to really
hit the nail one should automate this and script it.
This is THE Backup/Restore book each SQL-Server DBA must have in his bag. READ it BEFORE disasater
happens. One can never be preperaed enough for situations like this.

Last but not least there's an appendix with the Mohan/Narang paper This paper outlines
the ARIES Write Ahead Log protocol recovery mechanism that SQL Server uses.

Frank McBath has successfully filled a gap in the reference book section with this complete guide to SQL Server 2000 Backup and Recovery. With its in-depth content and real world examples, McBath's book provides a comprehensive look at everything you will need to know about SQL Server backup and recovery. He highlights common problems and provides practical workarounds. One of the great things about this book is that it is not so general that you would be hard-pressed to find useful examples. McBath gives you the commentary, the code and the specific content that you can use at work. This is definitely the kind of book that every SQL Server DBA should have!

If you do any SQL Server administration where your boss cares about the data contained therein, TRUST ME, READ THIS BOOK THOROUGHLY BEFORE you are in a position of responsibilty. Had I never read this book before I inherited my DBA responsibilities, I doubt I'd be employed right now. This book could not be easier to read, have better examples or provide better insights. Even though I went through a MOC training course and the teacher was great, one week isn't long enough for everything to sink in. Thank goodness there are guys like Mr. McBride to fill in the remaining gap.

I could not say enough good things about this book...mainly becuase I still have a good job because of it.

If your database is important to your boss, this book is a MUST!!!!!!!!!!!

Author calls it concise monograph that covers a wide variety of backup and recovery issues with plenty of examples. Well, concerning backup section there are more examples in Books on Line. No backup options are explained (i.e. You would use this option to do this particular thing). Absolutely NO scenarios are given. Only a few basic backup statements without any explanation what to run before and after backup. There is an interesting script "Monitoring the Completion of a Backup" - almost 3 pages of code but there is no download option so it is up to the reader to type it in. What a waste of time. Author often makes a point how bad backup and restore practices are in places he did the consulting for. I think they are no better or worse than the books we have to learn from.