Testing a recovery process can be the most feared task of any DBA. If the database
is relatively small (less than 50GB or so), testing by restoring to a development database
is straightforward. However, when it comes to larger databases where available
disk space plays a role, even establishing a valid testing process can be an excruciating
process. Again, testing is often one of those items that isn??™t seen as urgent, or the
resources necessary to do testing are few and far between. An untested process is a
substantial risk. Even if it??™s only once a year, always test a restore to ensure reliability.
nTip I was once called into an organization to assist in the restore of a mid-sized SQL database. I was told
that the IT department had complete backups, including differentials and incrementals. That immediately
concerned me??”there is no incremental backup within SQL Server. It turned out they were using an open file
option with their standard backup product, which let them back up files even though those files were open,
which almost never works for any transaction database.
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