- Backup Considerations
- How Will You Verify That the Backups Are Good?
- Which Databases Should You Back Up?
- Where Should You Back Up Your Databases?
- How Often Should You Back Up Your Databases?
- How Long Should You Keep Your Backups?
- How Long Will It Take to Recover a Backup?
- Do You Have a Disaster Recovery Plan?
- Miscellaneous Tape Considerations
- About this Article
Miscellaneous Tape Considerations
If you choose to back up to tapes, you should be aware of the following:
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SQL Server writes to tape using American National Standards Institute (ANSI) tape headers. This means that SQL Server can share tapes with Windows NT or Windows 2000 backups.
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SQL Server uses the console program to notify an operator when a tape needs to be changed (if the program is running).
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As you might expect, you can store more than one backup on a single tape.
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If you plan to take advantage of a particular tape drive's special features, such as hardware compression, make sure that the same model will be available when you need to recover using the tape. This is particularly true if you plan to keep the tapes around for a long time. Are you sure that you'll still have that brand of tape drive available in five years?