Can I ghost an SQL server?

I have a test environment that we rebuild servers on a regular basis.
To streamline the process we use ghost. We will be installing SQL on
the servers and want to build a ghost image with that build. We have
tested it by doing the build, loading the data, and then stopping all
the services and setting them to manual. After we Ghost the machine,
we start up the services and reset them to Automatic. Seems to work.

My question is:

Are there any risks? Should I expect any adverse affects?

Thanks for all your help!(otisim@.YAHOO.COM) writes:
> I have a test environment that we rebuild servers on a regular basis.
> To streamline the process we use ghost. We will be installing SQL on
> the servers and want to build a ghost image with that build. We have
> tested it by doing the build, loading the data, and then stopping all
> the services and setting them to manual. After we Ghost the machine,
> we start up the services and reset them to Automatic. Seems to work.
> My question is:
> Are there any risks? Should I expect any adverse affects?

Well, there is one catch. I assume that you rename the machines once
the ghosting as been completed. In this case @.@.servername is likely
to retain the old name or be NULL. In the latter case, you need to do:

sp_addserver NEWNAME, local

Restart SQL Server after this. If @.@.servername retains the old name
I would try dropping it with sp_dropserver first, although I don't
know if it works.

--
Erland Sommarskog, SQL Server MVP, esquel@.sommarskog.se

Books Online for SQL Server SP3 at
http://www.microsoft.com/sql/techin.../2000/books.asp|||Actually, we are keeping the same name. This is because it is just a
rebuild of the same server.

In other words, we do some testing, we reimage the machine (so we start
with a fresh standard image), and then do more testing.

So we want to keep the same name. We are not using sysprep or making
any other changes. Same hardware, same build, same everything. Just
want to clear out any changes that were made during testing.

Thanks so much for the response.

Steve

can I bring roll back a trasaction log

I am building a test environment. My objective is to be able to bring the
test database from different stage within 15 minutes. The database mdf file
is 6G and the log file is 500M after truncated. The data is updated not
using transaction commit command.
Existing Plan
1/ prepare a full backup of the database to a file called
FullBackup.bak
2/ at each hour , do a transaction log backup. e.g
job1.trn
3/ I restore the database by applying the full backup bak and individual
transaction.log . But the whole process takes about one hour which does not
meet the requirement to bring back the database within 15 minutes.
Question:
1/ consider the following:
8:00 am full backup
9:00 am transaction log backup job 1
10:00am transaction log backup job 2
11:00am transaction log backup job 3
I need to bring back the database at 9:59am.
Is it a way to apply the transaction log so that the database can undo the
change based on the job3 transaction log, job 2 transaction log?
or
2/ What other way can allow me to bring back a data base at different stage
within 15 minutes?
3/ How to find out what database has been modified every one hour? and
what data has been added/deleted/edited.
Regards
SMS1
Hi
1. If you need to bring a database back to 9:59am, you need to restore the
last good full backup and all the transaction logs after that, including the
10:00am one, up to the time you need. See "point in time recovery" in BOL
2. This is the only option, as transaction logs can be restored to an exact
point in time.
3. Look at the commercial products LogPI or Log Explorer to examine log files.
Cheers
Mike
"sms" wrote:

> I am building a test environment. My objective is to be able to bring the
> test database from different stage within 15 minutes. The database mdf file
> is 6G and the log file is 500M after truncated. The data is updated not
> using transaction commit command.
> Existing Plan
> 1/ prepare a full backup of the database to a file called
> FullBackup.bak
> 2/ at each hour , do a transaction log backup. e.g
> job1.trn
> 3/ I restore the database by applying the full backup bak and individual
> transaction.log . But the whole process takes about one hour which does not
> meet the requirement to bring back the database within 15 minutes.
> Question:
> 1/ consider the following:
> 8:00 am full backup
> 9:00 am transaction log backup job 1
> 10:00am transaction log backup job 2
> 11:00am transaction log backup job 3
> I need to bring back the database at 9:59am.
> Is it a way to apply the transaction log so that the database can undo the
> change based on the job3 transaction log, job 2 transaction log?
> or
> 2/ What other way can allow me to bring back a data base at different stage
> within 15 minutes?
>
> 3/ How to find out what database has been modified every one hour? and
> what data has been added/deleted/edited.
> Regards
> SMS1
>
>
|||Depending on your disk configurations, you might reduce the backup and
recovery times by striping your backup files e.g.
BACKUP DATABASE pubs TO DISK = 'f:\backups\pubs1.bak', DISK =
'f:\backups\pubs2.bak' ...
When you mentioned that the recovery took 1 hour, did you delete the
database before restoring it? If you did, try restoring without first
deleting the database. It would save some time as it avoids having SQL
Server create a 6 Gig file before the restore process actually starts.
Lastly, depending again on your hardware configuration, you can reduce
backup and restore times by using backup software that works with compressed
SQL Server backup files e.g. our product, MiniSQLBackup.
Peter Yeoh
http://www.yohz.com
Need smaller SQL2K backups? Use MiniSQLBackup Lite, free!
"sms" <sms1@.pctc.com> wrote in message
news:vsg4d.2575$KF.20421@.tor-nn1.netcom.ca...
> I am building a test environment. My objective is to be able to bring the
> test database from different stage within 15 minutes. The database mdf
file
> is 6G and the log file is 500M after truncated. The data is updated not
> using transaction commit command.
> Existing Plan
> 1/ prepare a full backup of the database to a file called
> FullBackup.bak
> 2/ at each hour , do a transaction log backup. e.g
> job1.trn
> 3/ I restore the database by applying the full backup bak and individual
> transaction.log . But the whole process takes about one hour which does
not
> meet the requirement to bring back the database within 15 minutes.
> Question:
> 1/ consider the following:
> 8:00 am full backup
> 9:00 am transaction log backup job 1
> 10:00am transaction log backup job 2
> 11:00am transaction log backup job 3
> I need to bring back the database at 9:59am.
> Is it a way to apply the transaction log so that the database can undo the
> change based on the job3 transaction log, job 2 transaction log?
> or
> 2/ What other way can allow me to bring back a data base at different
stage
> within 15 minutes?
>
> 3/ How to find out what database has been modified every one hour? and
> what data has been added/deleted/edited.
> Regards
> SMS1
>

can I bring roll back a trasaction log

I am building a test environment. My objective is to be able to bring the
test database from different stage within 15 minutes. The database mdf file
is 6G and the log file is 500M after truncated. The data is updated not
using transaction commit command.
Existing Plan
1/ prepare a full backup of the database to a file called
FullBackup.bak
2/ at each hour , do a transaction log backup. e.g
job1.trn
3/ I restore the database by applying the full backup bak and individual
transaction.log . But the whole process takes about one hour which does not
meet the requirement to bring back the database within 15 minutes.
Question:
1/ consider the following:
8:00 am full backup
9:00 am transaction log backup job 1
10:00am transaction log backup job 2
11:00am transaction log backup job 3
I need to bring back the database at 9:59am.
Is it a way to apply the transaction log so that the database can undo the
change based on the job3 transaction log, job 2 transaction log?
or
2/ What other way can allow me to bring back a data base at different stage
within 15 minutes?
3/ How to find out what database has been modified every one hour? and
what data has been added/deleted/edited.
Regards
SMS1Depending on your disk configurations, you might reduce the backup and
recovery times by striping your backup files e.g.
BACKUP DATABASE pubs TO DISK = 'f:\backups\pubs1.bak', DISK ='f:\backups\pubs2.bak' ...
When you mentioned that the recovery took 1 hour, did you delete the
database before restoring it? If you did, try restoring without first
deleting the database. It would save some time as it avoids having SQL
Server create a 6 Gig file before the restore process actually starts.
Lastly, depending again on your hardware configuration, you can reduce
backup and restore times by using backup software that works with compressed
SQL Server backup files e.g. our product, MiniSQLBackup.
--
Peter Yeoh
http://www.yohz.com
Need smaller SQL2K backups? Use MiniSQLBackup Lite, free!
"sms" <sms1@.pctc.com> wrote in message
news:vsg4d.2575$KF.20421@.tor-nn1.netcom.ca...
> I am building a test environment. My objective is to be able to bring the
> test database from different stage within 15 minutes. The database mdf
file
> is 6G and the log file is 500M after truncated. The data is updated not
> using transaction commit command.
> Existing Plan
> 1/ prepare a full backup of the database to a file called
> FullBackup.bak
> 2/ at each hour , do a transaction log backup. e.g
> job1.trn
> 3/ I restore the database by applying the full backup bak and individual
> transaction.log . But the whole process takes about one hour which does
not
> meet the requirement to bring back the database within 15 minutes.
> Question:
> 1/ consider the following:
> 8:00 am full backup
> 9:00 am transaction log backup job 1
> 10:00am transaction log backup job 2
> 11:00am transaction log backup job 3
> I need to bring back the database at 9:59am.
> Is it a way to apply the transaction log so that the database can undo the
> change based on the job3 transaction log, job 2 transaction log?
> or
> 2/ What other way can allow me to bring back a data base at different
stage
> within 15 minutes?
>
> 3/ How to find out what database has been modified every one hour? and
> what data has been added/deleted/edited.
> Regards
> SMS1
>|||Hi
1. If you need to bring a database back to 9:59am, you need to restore the
last good full backup and all the transaction logs after that, including the
10:00am one, up to the time you need. See "point in time recovery" in BOL
2. This is the only option, as transaction logs can be restored to an exact
point in time.
3. Look at the commercial products LogPI or Log Explorer to examine log files.
Cheers
Mike
"sms" wrote:
> I am building a test environment. My objective is to be able to bring the
> test database from different stage within 15 minutes. The database mdf file
> is 6G and the log file is 500M after truncated. The data is updated not
> using transaction commit command.
> Existing Plan
> 1/ prepare a full backup of the database to a file called
> FullBackup.bak
> 2/ at each hour , do a transaction log backup. e.g
> job1.trn
> 3/ I restore the database by applying the full backup bak and individual
> transaction.log . But the whole process takes about one hour which does not
> meet the requirement to bring back the database within 15 minutes.
> Question:
> 1/ consider the following:
> 8:00 am full backup
> 9:00 am transaction log backup job 1
> 10:00am transaction log backup job 2
> 11:00am transaction log backup job 3
> I need to bring back the database at 9:59am.
> Is it a way to apply the transaction log so that the database can undo the
> change based on the job3 transaction log, job 2 transaction log?
> or
> 2/ What other way can allow me to bring back a data base at different stage
> within 15 minutes?
>
> 3/ How to find out what database has been modified every one hour? and
> what data has been added/deleted/edited.
> Regards
> SMS1
>
>

Can anyone offer me any suggestions on how to create a back up site w/ db in the

I am currently running a site on a shared environment with sql db. The account is with verio.com: Windows Server 2003m SQL 2000.

What we would like to do is create a back up site with a backup db. I would like this functionality so that in the event of a crash, while the current site is being repaired, or if the server is down for a prolonged period, I can simply switch to the backup site w/ db.

What would the preferable method of doing this in such an environment? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.Look into Log Shipping, sounds like it may answer your needs.|||I just read up on that at:

http://www.sql-server-performance.com/sql_server_log_shipping.asp

Very interesting...however can I pull that off in a shared environment, even if I have to get a second account?|||I don't see any issue with LS working in shared environment.
Can you explain about second account?|||Originally posted by rdjabarov
Look into Log Shipping, sounds like it may answer your needs.