Restoring from a backup

Fortunately this isn't a real-life issue, though I want an answer before I
encounter one. As part of the price of being allowed to switched to
differential backups, I have to write a complete, detailed,
screenshot-at-very-stage explanation of our backup and store strategy. When
I got to the restore part of the document, I realized that I don't fully
understand this.
I loaded the Restore dialog and saw that it had checked the last full
backup, the last differential, and the last log file, which was created
immediately after the last differential. There were no log files done since
that backup. (I know that you're supposed to backup the tail of the log, but
this was just an exploration of the screen.)
Here's my question:
Doesn't that log file contain all the transactions since the last time the
log was backed up?
Aren't those transactions already in the data that would be recovered from
restoring the full + differential?
What would be the effect of restoring that log on top of the full +
differential?If you haven't backed up the "tail" of the log, then the full+diff+log will
take you only to the pint in time that the last log was backed up.
Restoring only the full+diff takes you to a point in time before the log
backup. You need that log backup to take you beyond the point in time of
the differential.
Let's say that you took 3 log backups after the differential, then you would
have to restore:
full
diff
txn log 1
txn log 2
txn log 3
That would take you up to a point in time at which the 3rd txn log was
taken. If your DB was corrupted after that, then you can do a BACKUP LOG
WITH NO_TRUNCATE to capture the tail of the log and then restore that as
part of the restore process.
--
Tom
----
Thomas A. Moreau, BSc, PhD, MCSE, MCDBA, MCITP, MCTS
SQL Server MVP
Toronto, ON Canada
https://mvp.support.microsoft.com/profile/Tom.Moreau
"Bev Kaufman" <BevKaufman@.discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:0517FB52-823C-43C2-8EDC-E9E6DDD4CFFD@.microsoft.com...
Fortunately this isn't a real-life issue, though I want an answer before I
encounter one. As part of the price of being allowed to switched to
differential backups, I have to write a complete, detailed,
screenshot-at-very-stage explanation of our backup and store strategy. When
I got to the restore part of the document, I realized that I don't fully
understand this.
I loaded the Restore dialog and saw that it had checked the last full
backup, the last differential, and the last log file, which was created
immediately after the last differential. There were no log files done since
that backup. (I know that you're supposed to backup the tail of the log,
but
this was just an exploration of the screen.)
Here's my question:
Doesn't that log file contain all the transactions since the last time the
log was backed up?
Aren't those transactions already in the data that would be recovered from
restoring the full + differential?
What would be the effect of restoring that log on top of the full +
differential?

Restoring deleted records with out of row blobs?

I have a database that had a number of rows in multiple tables deleted -
fortunately there was very little activity after these deletions (mostly more
deletions a few days later).
I have the log files, but the original inserts just have the pointer to the
blob. I tried generating undo scripts with apexsql Log but it doesn't even
reference the blob column when the script generates (restoring from a
detached mdf does give the pointer, but that pointer doesn't go anywhere and
a select on it is blank/null).
How is one supposed to go about restoring records / rolling back a
transaction log for deleting a row with an out-of-row blob? Am I totally
screwed even though nothing else happened in the database aside from the
deletes before the backup was taken?
"Andrew Meinert" <AndrewMeinert@.discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:5CE119C0-80AE-4A16-A452-799A41971BC5@.microsoft.com...
>I have a database that had a number of rows in multiple tables deleted -
> fortunately there was very little activity after these deletions (mostly
> more
> deletions a few days later).
> I have the log files, but the original inserts just have the pointer to
> the
> blob. I tried generating undo scripts with apexsql Log but it doesn't
> even
> reference the blob column when the script generates (restoring from a
> detached mdf does give the pointer, but that pointer doesn't go anywhere
> and
> a select on it is blank/null).
> How is one supposed to go about restoring records / rolling back a
> transaction log for deleting a row with an out-of-row blob? Am I totally
> screwed even though nothing else happened in the database aside from the
> deletes before the backup was taken?
Use the last full backup and the subsequent log backups to do a
point-in-time restore to a new database. Then do INSERTS from the restored
database to your real database.
David
|||"David Browne" wrote:

> "Andrew Meinert" <AndrewMeinert@.discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:5CE119C0-80AE-4A16-A452-799A41971BC5@.microsoft.com...
>
> Use the last full backup and the subsequent log backups to do a
> point-in-time restore to a new database. Then do INSERTS from the restored
> database to your real database.
> David
>
Unfortunately the database was created between full backups and the only
remaining full backup is after the fact. There's no way to roll back the
transactions from the ldf?
How are blobs handled in the transaction log? Is it just a limitation of
the log viewer that I'm using that I don't see the the anything about the
content of the blobs aside from the pointer in row?
|||"David Browne" wrote:

> "Andrew Meinert" <AndrewMeinert@.discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:5CE119C0-80AE-4A16-A452-799A41971BC5@.microsoft.com...
>
> Use the last full backup and the subsequent log backups to do a
> point-in-time restore to a new database. Then do INSERTS from the restored
> database to your real database.
> David
>
So far it looks like
http://www.red-gate.com/products/SQL_Log_Rescue/index.htm will help me. My
frustrations seem to stem from a limitation with the other software I had
tried. I can see the correct data in the demo of log rescue... here's to
hoping.

Restoring deleted records with out of row blobs?

I have a database that had a number of rows in multiple tables deleted -
fortunately there was very little activity after these deletions (mostly more
deletions a few days later).
I have the log files, but the original inserts just have the pointer to the
blob. I tried generating undo scripts with apexsql Log but it doesn't even
reference the blob column when the script generates (restoring from a
detached mdf does give the pointer, but that pointer doesn't go anywhere and
a select on it is blank/null).
How is one supposed to go about restoring records / rolling back a
transaction log for deleting a row with an out-of-row blob? Am I totally
screwed even though nothing else happened in the database aside from the
deletes before the backup was taken?"Andrew Meinert" <AndrewMeinert@.discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:5CE119C0-80AE-4A16-A452-799A41971BC5@.microsoft.com...
>I have a database that had a number of rows in multiple tables deleted -
> fortunately there was very little activity after these deletions (mostly
> more
> deletions a few days later).
> I have the log files, but the original inserts just have the pointer to
> the
> blob. I tried generating undo scripts with apexsql Log but it doesn't
> even
> reference the blob column when the script generates (restoring from a
> detached mdf does give the pointer, but that pointer doesn't go anywhere
> and
> a select on it is blank/null).
> How is one supposed to go about restoring records / rolling back a
> transaction log for deleting a row with an out-of-row blob? Am I totally
> screwed even though nothing else happened in the database aside from the
> deletes before the backup was taken?
Use the last full backup and the subsequent log backups to do a
point-in-time restore to a new database. Then do INSERTS from the restored
database to your real database.
David|||"David Browne" wrote:
> "Andrew Meinert" <AndrewMeinert@.discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:5CE119C0-80AE-4A16-A452-799A41971BC5@.microsoft.com...
> >I have a database that had a number of rows in multiple tables deleted -
> > fortunately there was very little activity after these deletions (mostly
> > more
> > deletions a few days later).
> >
> > I have the log files, but the original inserts just have the pointer to
> > the
> > blob. I tried generating undo scripts with apexsql Log but it doesn't
> > even
> > reference the blob column when the script generates (restoring from a
> > detached mdf does give the pointer, but that pointer doesn't go anywhere
> > and
> > a select on it is blank/null).
> >
> > How is one supposed to go about restoring records / rolling back a
> > transaction log for deleting a row with an out-of-row blob? Am I totally
> > screwed even though nothing else happened in the database aside from the
> > deletes before the backup was taken?
>
> Use the last full backup and the subsequent log backups to do a
> point-in-time restore to a new database. Then do INSERTS from the restored
> database to your real database.
> David
>
So far it looks like
http://www.red-gate.com/products/SQL_Log_Rescue/index.htm will help me. My
frustrations seem to stem from a limitation with the other software I had
tried. I can see the correct data in the demo of log rescue... here's to
hoping.

Restoring deleted records with out of row blobs?

I have a database that had a number of rows in multiple tables deleted -
fortunately there was very little activity after these deletions (mostly mor
e
deletions a few days later).
I have the log files, but the original inserts just have the pointer to the
blob. I tried generating undo scripts with apexsql Log but it doesn't even
reference the blob column when the script generates (restoring from a
detached mdf does give the pointer, but that pointer doesn't go anywhere and
a select on it is blank/null).
How is one supposed to go about restoring records / rolling back a
transaction log for deleting a row with an out-of-row blob? Am I totally
screwed even though nothing else happened in the database aside from the
deletes before the backup was taken?"Andrew Meinert" <AndrewMeinert@.discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:5CE119C0-80AE-4A16-A452-799A41971BC5@.microsoft.com...
>I have a database that had a number of rows in multiple tables deleted -
> fortunately there was very little activity after these deletions (mostly
> more
> deletions a few days later).
> I have the log files, but the original inserts just have the pointer to
> the
> blob. I tried generating undo scripts with apexsql Log but it doesn't
> even
> reference the blob column when the script generates (restoring from a
> detached mdf does give the pointer, but that pointer doesn't go anywhere
> and
> a select on it is blank/null).
> How is one supposed to go about restoring records / rolling back a
> transaction log for deleting a row with an out-of-row blob? Am I totally
> screwed even though nothing else happened in the database aside from the
> deletes before the backup was taken?
Use the last full backup and the subsequent log backups to do a
point-in-time restore to a new database. Then do INSERTS from the restored
database to your real database.
David|||"David Browne" wrote:

> "Andrew Meinert" <AndrewMeinert@.discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in messag
e
> news:5CE119C0-80AE-4A16-A452-799A41971BC5@.microsoft.com...
>
> Use the last full backup and the subsequent log backups to do a
> point-in-time restore to a new database. Then do INSERTS from the restore
d
> database to your real database.
> David
>
Unfortunately the database was created between full backups and the only
remaining full backup is after the fact. There's no way to roll back the
transactions from the ldf?
How are blobs handled in the transaction log? Is it just a limitation of
the log viewer that I'm using that I don't see the the anything about the
content of the blobs aside from the pointer in row?|||"David Browne" wrote:

> "Andrew Meinert" <AndrewMeinert@.discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in messag
e
> news:5CE119C0-80AE-4A16-A452-799A41971BC5@.microsoft.com...
>
> Use the last full backup and the subsequent log backups to do a
> point-in-time restore to a new database. Then do INSERTS from the restore
d
> database to your real database.
> David
>
So far it looks like
http://www.red-gate.com/products/SQ...escue/index.htm will help me. My
frustrations seem to stem from a limitation with the other software I had
tried. I can see the correct data in the demo of log rescue... here's to
hoping.