Feature Request - merge backups

EdVassieEdVassie Posts: 15
edited April 4, 2008 6:49AM in SQL Backup Previous Versions
Description
Ability to merge multiple backup files and create a new backup file.
e.g.1 Take a Full backup file and the subsequent transaction log backup files, and create a new full backup file to a) a given point in time, or b) to the end of the last log backup file.
e.g.2 Take a Full backup file and a Differential backup file and produce a new Full backup file to the point in time of the Differential backup.

The resulting Full backup file should be logged on SQL Server as normal.

Justification:
1) Finding a window to do a full backup is not always easy. Being able to produce a full backup from log backups eliminates the need to find this window.
2) The backup merge could be done on any server, taking a load away from the SQL Server machine. The merge would only need to connect to SQL Server to log that the backup has been made.

Notes:
This type of functionality has already been released by BMC for their mainframe DB2 product, so there may be patent issues to beware of.
This function proved very popular at DB2 sites, with some now only running a real full backup only a few times a year and using the merge functionality to produce their daily backup.

Comments

  • Many thanks for this suggestion. It would be interesting to find out how wide-spread is the interest in merging backups -- if this is something other people could see themselves using on a regular basis, please do add a post to this thread, with any other information you think is relevant.

    Best regards,


    Colin.
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