The Activity History - SQL Backup

Select the Activity History tab on the main window to view a history of backup and restore operations.

Select the SQL Server instance or database for which you want to see the activity history in the Registered SQL Servers pane.

To update the details, on the View menu, click Refresh Connection.

Display

In the first column, indicates that the activity was performed using SQL Backup (version 5 or later). If no icon is shown, the activity was performed using an earlier version of SQL Backup, or another program (such as SQL Server native backup).

In the second column, indicates that the backup is encrypted.

Outcome shows the results of the backup or restore operation. An icon is displayed so that you can scan the list easily:

For information on viewing details of errors or warnings, see "Activity Properties" below.

Type shows the type of activity. An icon is displayed so that you can scan the list easily:

Note that if you have a dark background colour, the colours of the icons do not reverse, but the outline changes. For example:

Verification Type shows the type of verification included in the backup or restore operation.

• VERIFY (equivalent to RESTORE VERIFYONLY) and CHECKSUM can be included in a backup operation from the Back Up or Schedule Backup Jobs wizard, or using the command line or extended stored procedure.
• DBCC CHECKDB can be included in a restore operation from the Schedule Restore Jobs wizard or using the command line or extended stored procedure.

  CHECKSUM is included in a restore operation by default if CHECKSUM was included in the backup operation. You can exclude CHECKSUM from a restore operation using the command line or extended stored procedure.

Date shows the date and time of the activity in the time zone local to the SQL Server.

Duration shows the time taken to perform the backup or restore operation. Note that this does not include the time taken for any activities done on completion, such as running RESTORE VERIFYONLY or DBCC CHECKDB, erasing existing files, copying backups to a network share, and sending notification emails.

Uncompressed Size shows the total amount of uncompressed data passed to SQL Backup by SQL Server. This may be larger than the Data size and Log size reported in the database properties because data is passed to SQL Backup in blocks of a minimum of 64 KB. For example, a 512 byte block of data from SQL Server is passed to SQL Backup as a 64 KB block. You can use the sp_spaceused stored procedure if you want to check how much of the data and log file allocation is used; for details, refer to your SQL Server documentation.

Compressed Size shows the size of the backup file(s) on disk.

Compressed By shows the percentage compression; SQL Backup calculates the percentage compression of a backup by comparing the size of the SQL Backup backup with the total database size. For example, if a database comprises a 10 GB data file and a 3 GB transaction log file and SQL Backup generates a full backup of the database to create a backup file that is 3 GB, the compression for this backup is calculated as 77%, [1-(3/13)]x100.

Compression Level shows the compression level used for the backup.

If you chose to verify a backup, Verified displays Yes if the backup files are not corrupted and can be read by SQL Backup for restoring or Failed if any of the backup files are corrupted. If you did not verify the backup, No is displayed. For backups made by SQL Backup version 4 or earlier, this column is blank.

Files shows the total number of files created for a backup, or the number of backup files restored for a restore operation.

User Name displays the login used to access the SQL Server.

The information displayed is extracted from the backupset table in the msdb database. When you add the SQL Server instance to SQL Backup, you can restrict the number of days of data that is extracted from the backupset table. For more information about this table refer to your SQL Server documentation. Note that if you have changed the name of your SQL Server, SQL Backup displays only activities that have occurred since the name was changed.

Interaction

By default, the activities are listed in date and time order, with the most recent first. You can change the sort order by clicking the header for the column by which you want to sort the list. Click the header again to reverse the order. You can also resize the columns as required.

When you click an activity in the Activity History, the time line view changes to show the activity and it is highlighted. Similarly, when you click a completed activity in the time line, it is selected in the Activity History.

To restore a backup, right-click the backup and click Restore. The Restore wizard is displayed.

To see a list of the files for a backup or restore operation, right-click the activity in the Activity History and then click Properties, or double-click the activity. For details, see "Activity properties" below. You can view properties only for activities that were performed by SQL Backup version 5 or later.

To view the SQL Backup log file for a backup or restore operation, right-click the activity and click Show Log. The Activity Log dialog is displayed.

Activity Properties

To display the properties of a backup or restore operation, right-click the activity in the Activity History, and click Properties, or double-click the activity in the time line or Activity History. Activity properties are available only for activities performed by SQL Backup (version 5 or later).

File Name displays the name of each backup file associated with the backup or restore operation.

In the backup properties, File Size displays the total amount of uncompressed data passed to SQL Backup by SQL Server. This may be larger than the Data size and Log size reported in the database properties because data is passed to SQL Backup in blocks of a minimum of 64 KB. For example, a 512 byte block of data from SQL Server is passed to SQL Backup as a 64 KB block. You can use the sp_spaceused stored procedure if you want to check how much of the data and log file allocation is used; for details, refer to your SQL Server documentation.

In the restore properties:

• for single file backups, File Size displays the total amount of uncompressed data passed to SQL Backup, as described for backup properties
• for split file backups, File Size displays the native backup data size of each file

Compressed Size shows the size of the backup file on disk.

Errors and Warnings displays any error or warning messages associated with the selected backup or restore operation.

To view the SQL Backup log file for the backup or restore operation, click Show Log. The Activity Log dialog is displayed.