SQL Server 2005 – Automating Creation of Database Snapshots

SQL Server 2005 is packed with many new features. One of the new features that I would like to discuss in this article is Database Snapshots, which are read only static views of a database. SQL Server 2005 allows you to create multiple snapshots on a database. In this article, I would like to demonstrate the creation of database snapshots and automating the creation of database snapshots.

First let’s simulate the whole snapshot creation process.

Step 1

Copy and paste the query below into the Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio’s Query window and execute it. This statement creates the database MyDB.

Create Database MyDB on Primary
(Name =‘Mydb_Data’,
FileName= ‘C:\data\MyDB_Data.Mdf’,
Size=100MB,
MaxSize=200MB,
FILEGROWTH=10%)
Log on
(Name = ‘Mydb_Log’,
FileName= ‘C:\data\MyDB_Log.Ldf’,
Size=30MB,
MaxSize=50MB,
FILEGROWTH=10%);

Step 2

Let us create a table and insert some rows.

Copy and paste the query below into the Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio’s Query window and execute it. This statement creates the table Hubble_Galaxies and inserts 5 rows to the table.

Use MyDB
go
Create table Hubble_Galaxies (Id int, name varchar(100))
go
insert into Hubble_Galaxies values (1,‘MilkyWay’)
insert into Hubble_Galaxies values (2,‘Spiral Galacy NGC 1300’)
insert into Hubble_Galaxies values (3,‘Whirpool Galacy M51’)
insert into Hubble_Galaxies values (4,‘Galaxy NGC 1427A’)
insert into Hubble_Galaxies values (5,‘NGC 3370’)
go

Step 3

Now let’s create a snapshot for the database MyDB.

Copy and paste the query below into the Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio’s Query window and execute it. This statement creates the snapshot MyDB_Snapshot1 for the database MyDB.

use master
go
Create Database MyDB_Snapshot1  on
(Name =‘Mydb_Data’,
FileName= ‘C:\data\MyDB_Data.SS1’)
AS SNAPSHOT of MyDB;
go

This would create a file C:\data\MyDB_Data.SS1 as shown in Figure 1.0

Fig 1.0

Step 4

Now let’s delete some rows from the original database.

Copy and paste the query below into the Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio’s Query window and execute it. This statement deletes two rows from the MyDB database.

use MyDB
go
delete from Hubble_Galaxies where id in (3,5)
go