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Back Up Database Task (Maintenance Plan)

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.

To create a backup database task

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 drop down 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.

    Note

    Maintenance plans run only against databases set to compatibility level 80 or higher. Databases set to compatibility level 70 or lower are not displayed.

  • 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
    Click 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 will be created for each database selected.

  • Create a sub-directory for each database
    Select to place each database in a subfolder.

    Security noteSecurity Note

    Although maintenance plans can create subdirectories, maintenance tasks in SQL Server 2005 cannot delete subdirectories. This feature reduces the possibility of a malicious attack that uses the Maintenance Cleanup task to delete files.

    Important

    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 Enterprise (or a later version), select one the following backup compression values:

    Use the default server setting

    Click 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

    Click 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

    Click 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 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 is not available.

  • User name
    Provide a SQL Server login to use when authenticating. This option is not available.

  • Password
    Provide a password to use when authenticating. This option is not available.

See Also

Reference

BACKUP (Transact-SQL)