As part of my preparation for last week’s Embarcadero DataU 2015 Online Conference, I tried searching for articles, blog posts and videos about useless SQL Server backups. Now, you might be asking, “why would I even be searching for that specific topic?”

The primary (if not the most important) task of a database administrator (DBAs) is to take backups. While the reality is that DBAs spend less than 2% of their time performing this task, the fact still remains that this is their primary task. And because it is the primary task, we need to be really sure that we do a great job of doing what we were hired to do in the first place.

Most DBAs will simply automate this process and, then, move on to more pressing issues. And that’s fine. I love automation when the process is done right. And that is the point of this blog post. How many DBAs automate taking backups, monitor that the backup jobs completed successfully and check it off their daily list thinking that they’ve done their job right? There is nothing wrong with doing that. But a more important question to ask is, “are you aware that you backups could potentially be useless?”

In this video, I’ll walk you thru what majority of DBAs do – create an automated job to take backups and rely on the status of the backup jobs without realizing that the backups are totally useless. After watching this video, be sure to review all of your database backup jobs and check how you are making sure that your backups are not useless.

Additional Resources

• Is a Successful Backup Really a Successful Backup?
• The Scariest Lie We Believed About Backup Verification