Does a full backup also include the transaction log?

colemancoleman Posts: 23
edited April 26, 2007 3:31AM in SQL Backup Previous Versions
It seems like it is from the restore showing a large transaction log to restore as well. Is it possible to just get the database if it is?
Thanks!
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  • peteypetey Posts: 2,358 New member
    When you make a full database backup, the backup contains:

    - from the data files, only the used data pages

    - from the log files, the committed transactions that have not been written to the data files, and all uncommitted transactions

    If you want the full backup to contain largely only of the data files, then you should ensure that you do not have any large uncommitted transactions at the time the backup ends.

    Note that the sizes reported by the RESTORE FILELISTONLY command is the data and log file sizes at the time of the backup, not the sizes of the actual data contained in the backup.

    E.g. Database A may consist of a data file that's 50 MB in size, and a trx log file of 25 MB. If all tables in database A were dropped, and there are no uncommitted transactions, a full database backup will come to only ~1 MB. Running RESTORE FILELISTONLY will still display a data file of 50 MB and a trx log file of 25 MB that needs to be restored.
    Peter Yeoh
    SQL Backup Consultant Developer
    Associate, Yohz Software
    Beyond compression - SQL Backup goodies under the hood, updated for version 8
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