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Holy Great SQL Backup Batman...

I just installed and started using Red-Gate.com SQL Backup Utility, and I can't believe the difference in speed and file size.

I'm using this to backup my www.KBAlertz.com database, which is around 4.5 gig. Not huge, but all the backups were filling up my drive, so I went looking for an alternative to the Ent.Man. built in backups.

Enterprise Manger Backup
Time : 5 minutes to backup.
Original Database size : 4,503,488
Backup Size : 4,462,324 K

Red-Gate SQL Backup
78 Seconds to do full backup
Original Database size : 4,503,488
Backup File Size : 487,115K + 484,910K (Split Files)

More than 4 times smaller, and more than 4 times faster. NICE!

One thing I don't like, is that it doesn't look like I can backup all my database files at once. I have to script each one, then setup a job for each database, where in Ent.Man. I could group database's together to be backed up as a group.

If someone knows about this option, or how to do it, please let me know.

2006 May 23
Update: There is a very nice script that the red-gate support forums has online, that allows you to backup all of your databases at once. It even has a master table, that lists each of your database's, and let's you include exclude, and determine teh number of days to keep old backups around before they get deleted. Very nice script.

Posted: Jun 01 2005, 02:45 PM by scott cate | with 5 comment(s)
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Comments

Gregor Suttie said:

Yeah another really good tool from Red-Gate. I tested this with large db backups and the timing to do backups compared to veritas backup were very favourable too.
# June 1, 2005 5:15 PM

Scott said:

I've been using their SQL Schema diff tool for about a year now. It works great! I haven't tried their packaging tool but it sounds like a winner.
# June 1, 2005 6:06 PM

Daniel Handley said:

Hi. Over here at Red Gate we have had many comments about the inability to backup all the databases in one go. We have worked with a few people to create some scripts that will workaround this - they are available at our forum http://www.red-gate.com/MessageBoard/index.php . However we are working towards a permanent solution that should be available in version 4 soon.
# June 2, 2005 4:39 AM

Scott Cate said:

This is the script I was looking for. It allows for multiple database backup's and puts each on in a unique directory. http://www.red-gate.com/MessageBoard/viewtopic.php?t=984
# June 2, 2005 8:16 AM

Michael K. Campbell said:

Yeah, and there's one thing that most people tend to forget about in terms of smaller backups: they're a lot better to be sucking across the network when something crashes - because smaller = less time to wait until your DB can be restored and (hopefully) completely recovered.
# May 24, 2006 12:16 AM
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