client licence question
crichardson
Posts: 2
We have a central production sql server which does full and tran log backups in the normal way using standard sql server backup. However, we also have over 100 laptop users that have jobs setup on their MSDE installation to restore the previous night's full backups so they can have an off-line copy of the databases. They reconfigure their apps to point at the local databases for read-only purposes while they are on the road.
Using standard SQL Server restore procedures on the laptops means that we don't have any licence costs to consider. However, what I would like to do is introduce something like Red-Gate SQL Backup on the central production SQL Server in order to benefit from speed and compression advantages. There is no requirement to improve the speed of restore to laptops as they are all LAN connected when they do the restores and they are satisfied with things as they are. However, the problem is that I can not justify buying a large number of licences for clients laptops when the requirement is to simply use Red-Gate SQL Backup on the single production server (an perhaps a few other central servers).
Therefore, can Red-Gate tell me if there is a zero cost option with regard to restoring backups that have been backed up using Red-Gate SQL Backup? It would have to be command line driven because we have to automate the process - sql server jobs.
By the way, I looked into this with regard to LiteSpeed and we couldn't choose that product because the implication is that we would have to buy many client licences. There is a free restore utility that comes with LiteSpeed called an 'extractor' but it is of no use to use because it is interderminate as to how many files will be extracted. This would make it difficult/messy to automate.
So, can Red-Gate offer something that would work for us?
Clive Richardson
DBA
Using standard SQL Server restore procedures on the laptops means that we don't have any licence costs to consider. However, what I would like to do is introduce something like Red-Gate SQL Backup on the central production SQL Server in order to benefit from speed and compression advantages. There is no requirement to improve the speed of restore to laptops as they are all LAN connected when they do the restores and they are satisfied with things as they are. However, the problem is that I can not justify buying a large number of licences for clients laptops when the requirement is to simply use Red-Gate SQL Backup on the single production server (an perhaps a few other central servers).
Therefore, can Red-Gate tell me if there is a zero cost option with regard to restoring backups that have been backed up using Red-Gate SQL Backup? It would have to be command line driven because we have to automate the process - sql server jobs.
By the way, I looked into this with regard to LiteSpeed and we couldn't choose that product because the implication is that we would have to buy many client licences. There is a free restore utility that comes with LiteSpeed called an 'extractor' but it is of no use to use because it is interderminate as to how many files will be extracted. This would make it difficult/messy to automate.
So, can Red-Gate offer something that would work for us?
Clive Richardson
DBA
Comments
SQL Backup Consultant Developer
Associate, Yohz Software
Beyond compression - SQL Backup goodies under the hood, updated for version 8
I'd assume that you're referring to extracting a number of backup files from a single virtual device file. In that case, it's not an issue because each SQL Backup file is a virtual device that only contains one backup set.
Using the sqb2mtf utility to extract native Microsoft Tape Format files that SQL Server can read and restore natively will only ever extract one .BAK file from a .SQB file.