SQL Backup 5 client 'properties'

sidownes

I've recently started to use SQL Backup 5 client to monitor the backups across the servers in my environment. These backups include native SQL Server backup sets, SQL Backup 4 sets, SQL Backup 5 sets, and Netbackup backing up directly to tape.
In the version 4 client I could see across the servers which type of backup each backup was, based on the name of the file and its path. This feature seems to have been removed in the version 5 client so that only the properties on version 5 can be seen. With this being the case we cannot see whether all our native backups are successful or not, etc.
Has this feature been removed and are there plans to reintroduce it?


Thanks in advance

Brian Donahue

Hi,

I don't think anything has changed in this respect, although I don't have a v4 installation to look at right now. In version 5, the backup history does show all backups; SQL Backup jobs are identified by a 'safe' and other jobs (native) are shown without a safe.

Although you can only see history for the current server, you may go into the reports menu and generate a report of backup history across multiple servers if that's what you need.

If you have any more specific needs, please let me know.

sidownes

But again, the Reporting.. function only works for SQL Backup 5 servers, not native backups or SQL Backup 4 servers. And still it does not give the backup location, so we can't see where the backup is, whether it was to tape, a local drive, a network location.


The backup location details is definitely functionality that has been removed between version 4 and 5 of SQL Backup. Highlighting the individual backup in the Activity History would show the location of the given backup file in the bottom right pane of the screen. In version 5, right clicking the backup and selection properties gives the less than useful message "Properties are available only for backups created with SQL Backup Version 5", so it is very difficult to use the Version 5 client to manage an environment of native, version 4 and version 5 backups.