Restoring Exchange Server 2010 using Windows Server Backup

In my last article we discussed how to benefit from the built-in windows server backup feature of Windows 2008 and 2008 R2 and perform healthy backups of your Microsoft Exchange databases for free, without the need for any 3rd party tool. Today, we are going to go over the restore process by looking at two different situations; the first one is when we have experienced a complete loss of one database, and the second is when we need to recover just a single item from a mailbox.


http://www.simple-talk.com/sysadmin/exchange/restoring-exchange-server-2010-using-windows-server-backup/?utm_source=simpletalkExchange&utm_medium=email-sysadmin&utm_content=Restoring-20100706&utm_campaign=Exchange

Backing up Exchange 2010 For Free

It's hardly surprising that many SysAdmins are willing to pay over the odds for sophisticated backup solutions which they don't necessarily need, just to make sure their data is safe ASAP. Thankfully, Antoine Khater is here to give you a short and sweet walkthrough on how to keep your Exchange 2010 Server backed up for free. And the best news? You've already got everything you need.


http://www.simple-talk.com/content/article.aspx?article=1040

Reliable Storage Systems for SQL Server

By validating the IO path before commissioning the production database system, and performing ongoing validation through page checksums and DBCC checks, you can hopefully avoid data corruption altogether, or at least nip it in the bud. If corruption occurs, then you have to take the right decisions fast to deal with it. Rod Colledge explains how a pessimistic mindset can be an advantage


http://www.simple-talk.com/content/article.aspx?article=1027

Help, my database is corrupt. Now what?

A corrupt database is probably one of most DBA's worst nightmares. It results in downtime, managers shouting and all other sorts of unpleasant things

In this article, I'm going to explain some of the things not to do to a corrupt database, and then go through some of the things that should be done, some of the scenarios and the fixes for those.

Use Backup/Restore to Minimize Upgrade Downtimes

As a SQL Server professional, at some point in your career, you will need to upgrade between versions of SQL Server, or move a database from an older server onto a newer one. There are quite a few different ways to go about doing this, the most common being; Detach/Copy/Attach and Backup/Restore. When downtime is acceptable, either of these methods can get the job done, the only caveat being that if you are performing a upgrade to a newer version of SQL Server and you decide to use Detach/Copy/Attach to upgrade the databases that you still should take a backup of the database before moving it so that you have a point to fall back top. Once you attach the database files to the newer version they will be upgraded internally and will no longer be able to be used on the older version.

If time is of the essence during the migration, and downtime must be minimized, the best approach will depend on the size of the database being upgraded. For a database that is under 4GB in size, it may be acceptable to still do a Detach/Copy/Attach move of the database, but for a database that is 40GB in size, the time it takes to copy the files to the newer server could exceed the allowable downtime for the system. If the database is 400GB, it will most certainly take to long to move the database by Detach/Copy/Attach. In this case the best path to migration/upgrade is to work with Backup/Restore.

So how do you go about doing this?

Backup Monitoring and Reporting

Database recovery is a core task of database administration and is defined as executing the tasks necessary to backup, save, retrieve and restore databases from hardware, software and user error. Your database recovery procedures should be documented and regularly tested by restoring either a full or random sample of backups. A key part of database backups is monitoring whether backups are in fact occurring. A common mistake in backup monitoring is only checking for backup success or failure when there are in fact three possible outcomes; success, failure and nothing. What is nothing? Nothing is what happens when a database or entire SQL instance for that matter is not configured for backups or the SQL Agent job or Windows services which are often a part of 3rd tools are in a hung state. In order to achieve effective backup monitoring you need to look at the non-event of a lack of backup rather than failed backup messages. Regardless of how a database is backed up, whether through SQL Server native backups or any one of a number of commercial backup software a row is written to the msdb.baclkupset table. Knowing this information, you can create daily monitoring and backup reports.

How to back up Hyper-V virtual machines from the parent partition on a Windows Server 2008-based computer by using Windows Server Backup

This article describes how to back up Hyper-V virtual machines from the parent partition on a Windows Server 2008-based computer by using Windows Server Backup.

To back up Hyper-V virtual machines from the parent partition on Windows Server 2008 by using Windows Server Backup, you must register the Microsoft Hyper-V VSS writer with Windows Server Backup.

To register the Hyper-V VSS writer with Windows Server Backup, follow these steps.