CHAPTER 3 n RESTORING A DATABASE 51
RESTORE VERIFYONLY differs from all the other RESTORE commands in that it won??™t
return a discrete result set of different attributes. It simply declares a backup valid, fails
and declares it damaged, or fails while populating the MSDB..SUSPECT_PAGE table.
Information Contained in MSDB
MSDB records a significant amount of information regarding the backup history kept in
three main tables: restorefilegroup, restorefile, and restorehistory. You can also get
timing information from tables related to SQL Agent jobs, but SQL Agent doesn??™t necessarily
invoke the backups. These tables store information directly related to a RESTORE
command issued against the server.
The restorehistory table MSDB table is one that I find most useful. It contains a
record of any restore operation, even if it??™s just a verification operation. Table 3-4
describes some of the columns in the table. In an environment where there are multiple
hands in the backup/restore process, the restorehistory table can play a critical role in
diagnosing exactly what was done during a restore process.
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