LSNs also make point-in-time restore possible. As long as there is an uninterrupted string of
sequential LSN numbers and the database is in Full Recovery mode, you can recover the database up
to the last committed transaction. Even though SQL Server 2005 records all transaction details (including
before and after images) in the transaction log, that log is in the form of a binary file and cannot be
browsed without a third-party tool.
MSDB contains a great deal of information about backup operations??”not just
scheduled backup operations, but also any backup operations that occur any time a
BACKUP or RESTORE statement is issued. You could query MSDB system tables to read information
on the contents of backup files, but it??™s much better to interrogate the individual
backup file(s) themselves. You can do that using the RESTORE HEADERONLY command, and
Table 3-1 describes some of the information that you can get back. Commands such as
RESTORE HEADERONLY read information directly from the backup file(s). That information is
similar to what??™s in MSDB, but do remember that the information from the backup file
header should be considered the authoritative source of data.
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