Backup Solution

New Year, Same old story.  SQL Server backups are a necessity for every SQL Server Instance.  While there are many ways to accomplish this task, my favorite by far is Ola Hallengren's SQL Server Maintenance Solution.  The script comes complete with Database backups, rebuild indexes, integrity checks and even log cleanup.



Simply run the script against the master database, and the stored procedures are created, SQL Agent jobs created, and even a log table within the master database.

Here is the list of the SQL Agents jobs created.  Most are self explanatory.

CommandLog Cleanup - Cleanup of commandlog table, created by Maintenance strategy
DatabaseBackup - SYSTEM_DATABASES - FULL
DatabaseBackup - USER_DATABASES - DIFF
DatabaseBackup - USER_DATABASES - FULL
DatabaseBackup - USER_DATABASES - LOG
DatabaseIntegrityCheck - SYSTEM_DATABASES
DatabaseIntegrityCheck - USER_DATABASES
IndexOptimize - USER_DATABASES
Output File Cleanup - Cleanup of output files (for example the log files generated by the Maintence strategy)
sp_delete_backuphistory - deletes entries of backup and restore from the MSDB tables.

Each of the jobs is easily customizable.   Take a look at Ola's site for parameters.  The most common being file location and duration of logs or backups.