[dba-SQLServer] File extensions

It's dead simple to take the files home, assuming that you have a device
of suitable size.

1. Perform a backup using Enterprise Manager. 
2. Zip (or far better, RAR (c.f. WinRAR -- google it) the backup file.
3. Copy said file to your medium (CD, DVD, whatever). For BIG files I
use my ftp site, so as to sidestep the limitations of CD, DVD, email
attachment, etc.
4. Copy it to a suitable directory on your home machine. Unzip/unRAR it.
Simplest location is x:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL\Backup
(the default location to look for backups).
5. Run EM at home and select any database (this is first time; once the
database exists at home select it). Select Tools/Restore Database.
Change the name to the appropriate name. Select From Device in the opton
buttons. Navigate to the backup file. Click the Options tab and if
necessary edit the filenames (you might have to change drive/dir
depending on similarity/difference between your office box and your home
box; if so just click in the filename and edit to suit). Also on the
Options tab, click the Force Restore checkbox.
6. Click OK.

First time, this should create the database, using the named files and
their specified locations, and restore it from the backup. Subsequent
times, the database will exist already, so you just select it in step 5
and step through the prompts. This might seem a little complex upon
first read, but I assure you that it's dead simple. In the last site I
worked at, I did this every day before leaving work, and if I did
anything at home, then I reversed the process before returning to work.

What never ceases to amaze me about MS-SQL is the speed of its backups.
I always did a complete (as opposed to differential) backup on a db that
was about 300 Megs and it NEVER took more than a couple of minutes -- it
was WAY faster than copying the actual files from one dir to another.
RARing it took a little longer but compressed it magnificently, and the
FTP from home took only a few minutes. Restore a BOOM, data identical to
what I just left at work!

I would stay away from trying to copy the actual MDF and LDF files and
instead go with Backup and Restore.

Arthur

-----Original Message-----
From: dba-sqlserver-bounces at databaseadvisors.com
[mailto:dba-sqlserver-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of Andy
Lacey
Sent: Tuesday, September 14, 2004 2:49 AM
To: dba-sqlserver at databaseadvisors.com
Subject: [dba-SQLServer] File extensions


Sent this hours ago but hasn't appeared, hence trying again  -  so
apologies in advance when the original turns up.

Hello good people on this wet and windy Autumn evening in the UK

Simple question from a simple soul. I keep a weather eye on the SQL
server list but never having actually developed a SQL system my question
is: if I go to look at a client's existing system how can I tell if it
is SQL (which I think it is)? Would file suffixes tell me, or can a
developer call a database anything he/she likes? And if the file
suffixes are the answer what are the magic three letters? Going on from
there, if I was offered the opportunity to take the data away to have a
look at it can I just zip up a file or two, and if so what would I need
in order to be able to read the data in Access when I got back home?

-- Andy Lacey
http://www.minstersystems.co.uk

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