Red Gate Software's SQL Backup

I recently had the opportunity to work with a new piece of software for my SQL Server backups. The product is called SQL Backup and it is made by Red Gate Software. With SQL Backup, you can perform the following:

• Compressed backups
• Perform faster online backups
• Encrypt SQL Server backups with 128 bit Rijndael encryption
• Command line interface

Installing the tool is a snap. Simply run the SQLBackupSetup.exe and the Welcome window appears (Figure A). Next, accept the license agreement and choose the Destination Folder for your installation of SQL Backup (Figure B.)

You now have the option of installing an extended store procedure that allows you to perform backups remotely (Figure C.)

You are now ready to install the application by clicking Install. Once the installation is complete, select the Launch SQL Backup checkbox and click Finish, as shown in Figure D.

Next, you have to activate the server with your registration key as shown in Figure E. If you do not activate the server, you can use it for 14 days.

Performing a Backup

You can perform a backup using native TSQL or using SQL Backup’s user interface. Let’s first go over how to perform and backup and restore using SQL Backup’s UI.

To begin, launch SQL Backup from the Start menu (Start | SQL Backup | SQL Backup) as shown in Figure G. Next, right-click on a database and choose either backup or restore. The UI also has Backup and Restore buttons for you to use. The wizard walks you through a simple process to backup or restore your database. During the wizard, you have the option to choose a Full, Differential, or Transaction log backup as well as the ability to encrypt your data.

On the Backup Options window, you can backup the database to a single file, split backup files, and/or produce mirrored backup files to make multiple copies of a backup file at the same time. You can also choose your compression options. The UI is very intuitive and just requires you to do some due diligence and become familiar with the product.

The restore wizard is just as intuitive as the backup wizard is. Let’s move on and look at how to perform backups using TSQL (See Listing A).

Listing A

master..sqlbackup '-SQL "BACKUP DATABASE [DataJournal]  TO DISK = '
 'C:\WUTemp\datajournal2.sqb' WITH NAME = 'datajournal', 
 DESCRIPTION = 'Backup on 7/8/2005 8:12:05 PM  
  Database: DataJournal  
  Instance: (local)  
  Server: STEVEN-R5NJBO7Z', 
 PASSWORD = 'gxa5cw==', COMPRESSION = 1" -E'

When you run the Backup or Restore wizard from within the software, you have the ability to choose your scripting format. If you were going to run the query in Query Analyzer, you would want to choose the Extended stored procedure format. As you can see, this software is very flexible and allows a host of options.

In the future, I plan to write several articles on my favorite SQL Server tools. Download a trial copy of SQL Backup today and see if it fits your needs.