Tag Archives: Backups

How to convert a LiteSpeed backup into a native SQL backup

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I know all you folks out there are probably more proficient at playing around with LiteSpeed backups than I am. Recently, I had to play around with LiteSpeed backups on a regular basis while troubleshooting a particular case for a customer. I knew that there was a utility called Extractor for LiteSpeed which can convert the LiteSpeed backups into native SQL backups. 

Parameters: 

-F|–BackupFile {path}        Path of the backup or restore file devices 

-N|–BackupIndex  {n}       File number (If multiple backups appended within BackupFile(s))

-E|–MTFFile {path}            Path of the Microsoft Tape Format file(s) to be written.  Specify either one or the correct number of files.  If only one file is named, set will be created with index suffixes. If no files listed, Extractor will print number of MTF files to be written.

-K|–Key {key}                 String used to decrypt database backup file(s) Only required if backup is encrypted.
-I|–Overwrite                   Overwrite MTFFile(s). Equivalent of INIT in native SQLServer backups

-L|–LogLevel {n}              Logging option

Example: 

Extractor.exe -FC:\LiteSpeedTran.BKP -EC:\NativeBackup.BKP -N1  

NOTE: To use Extractor utility, you do not need LiteSpeed to be installed on the box. (But the licensing policies and EULA still apply if you are using Extractor) 

How to get backup header information for LiteSpeed backups 

If you have LiteSpeed installed on your box, then you can executed the following XSP command to get a RESTORE HEADERONLY output for a LiteSpeed backup file. This will give a similar output that the T-SQL command RESTORE HEADERONLY provides: 


exec master.dbo.xp_restore_headeronly @filename =  'C:\LiteSpeedTran.BKP'

Hope this information is helpful for individuals whose working knowledge is at not an EXPERT level with this product. I am a LiteSpeed noob!

Blog post update

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I published a new post on SQL Server FAQ on how incorrect buffercount values used or the lack of using the buffercount value can lead to Out of Memory errors in SQL Server.

Read about it here:

Incorrect BufferCount data transfer option can lead to OOM condition

Is my RESTORE operation complete?

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When you perform a database restore operation using Management Studio Object Explorer, you might be baffled as to why the confirmation pop-up window doesn’t pop-up saying that the database restore operation is complete.

image

This is because the RESTORE operation in SQL Server can be divided into two stages if you are having a high level discussion and don’t want to get into the intricacies:

1. Copy the information from the backup media and write them into the physical files on the Windows File System

2. Perform recovery on the database to bring it online (provided in the OPTIONS tab you have selected the first radio button under the Recovery State)

The highlighted counter shows you the progress of the first stage only. The second stage doesn’t have a progress counter associated with it. If you look at the percent_complete column value in the sys.dm_exec_requests DMV.

So, if your database restore screen is showing 100% completed status and the SQL Server Errorlog is not reporting the following for the database being restored:

2010-03-13 02:56:22.650 spid61       Starting up database ‘distribution_new’.
2010-03-13 02:56:23.140 Backup       Database was restored: Database: distribution_new, creation date(time): 2009/08/04(01:37:56), first LSN: 865:804:70, last LSN: 865:833:1, number of dump devices: 1, device information: (FILE=1, TYPE=DISK: {‘C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL.2\MSSQL\Backup\distribution.bak’}). Informational message. No user action required.

Then you are phase 2 of the restore provided that session performing the database restore is not experiencing blocking.

Now for the most interesting part, Why is this happening i.e. the long recovery? One of the reasons is documented here.

Why is VSS complaining about SQL Data files

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I recently came across a question on why a NTBackup of a Text File on a drive reported the following error in the application event logs:

Event Type:    Error
Event Source:    VSS
Event Category:    None
Event ID:    6005
Description:
Sqllib error: Database %1 is stored on multiple volumes, only some of which are being shadowed.

The interesting part is that the drive that stores the Text file that I am backing up also has a LDF file for a database. The MDF file of the same database resides on another drive. The intelligent SQL Writer was able to find out that only one file for the database in question is on this drive and the other file(s) is not present on the same drive. Hence, it reported the error causing confusion in our minds. A red cross in any log file is a BAD thing!! Not in this case. 🙂

I have already blogged about the behavior of NTBackup/VSS when a Snapshot is created in a previous post.

The conclusion is that if you have database files residing on multiple drives and you are using VSS to backup non-SQL database files on only one of these drives, then you can ignore the above error (if that is the only error). This is yet again another of the infamous by-design behaviors! 🙂

VDI application throwing back HEX – 0x080770007

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While taking a VDI backup of a SQL Server database, you get a VDI error with the following HEX code 0x080770007.

If you used simple.exe to perform the backup, then you would get the following error:

C:\TEMP>simple.exe B <SERVERNAME>\<INSTANCENAME> testdb
Connected to Server: <SERVERNAME>\<INSTANCENAME>
Backing up database: testdb
Performing a BACKUP using a virtual device.
VDS::Create fails: x80770007

If you lookup the 0x080770007 (VD_E_INSTANCE_NAME VD_ERROR) translates to failed to recognize the SQL Server instance name.

Then check if the following condition holds true:
There is no DEFAULT instance of SQL Server on the machine where you are trying to take a VDI backup and the SQL instance that you are connecting to perform a backup is a named instance. If above condition is true, then the issue is with CreateEx function of the interface IClientVirtualDeviceSet2. The CreateEx function is used to create the virtual device set and has the following syntax:

HRESULT IClientVirtualDeviceSet2::CreateEx (
LPCWSTR lpInstanceName,
LPCWSTR lpName,
VDConfig* pCfg);

The "lpInstanceName" parameter identifies the SQL Server instance to which the SQL command needs to be sent to. If the CreateEx method has NULL as the first parameter, then it would always connect to the Default instance. If the server doesn’t have a default SQL instance, then the first parameter needs to be provided with the instance name.
Eg. If you have a named instance on the server as "SERVER1\SQLINST1, then the first parameter for CreateEx should be "SQLINST1".

Another issue that can cause this error is when you use simple.exe to take a backup from an instance that is not installed on the box from which you are running simple.exe from. This can be true for other backup applications as well.

The reason for this is that simple.exe or any backup application using SQLVDI.DLL calls, you get the interface to the device set using the following piece of code. Eg: For simple.exe:

hr = CoCreateInstance (
        CLSID_MSSQL_ClientVirtualDeviceSet, 
        NULL,
        CLSCTX_INPROC_SERVER,
        IID_IClientVirtualDeviceSet2,
        (void**)&vds);

CoCreateInstance is used when you want to create only one object on the local system. If you planning to take a backup from a remote instance and using code similar to the one used in simple.exe, then you need to use CoCreateInstanceEx since the interface set would reside on the remote computer.

Another issue is that when we call CreateEx to create the virtual device set, we can only pass in the instance name and not the computer name. So, the backup application’s code should be designed in a correct manner for this to work which means .

Most known vendor applications Legato, NetBackup, Tivoli, LiteSpeed, SQLSafe etc. take care of these considerations!

Links: Modified simple.exe application code