Say you've decided to run RESTORE VERIFYONLY on
all SQL Server 2005/2008 backup files that you copy to a file
server, even though RESTORE VERIFYONLY
isn't 100% reliable.
However, the departmental budget did not provide for the
purchase and maintenance costs of another SQL Server 2005/2008
license. What now?
Well, enter SQL Server 2005/2008 Express Editions (Express).
That's the free edition of SQL Server 2005, that's usually
associated with under-4 GB databases. A little known fact is
that the Express Edition is able to work with files larger than 4
GB when running the RESTORE VERIFYONLY
command. That's right, you can install Express on your file
server where all your backup files are stored, and happily verify
all your backup files to ensure that they are valid. Did I
mention that Express is free?
Obviously, you'll need to write some code to trigger the
verification, logging and notification of errors etc (ok, it's not
entirely free in that sense). That's when we use SQL
Verify.
At the time of writing, you can download SQL Server 2005 Express
from this link, and SQL Server
2008 R2 Express from this link.
Document history
1/26/2011 | Added SQL Server 2008 link. |
1/26/2011 | Updated SQL Server 2005 link. |
6/27/2008 | Initial release. |