Getting started - SQL Backup

SQL Backup Pro™ enables you to create smaller, faster, more robust and reliable backups of Microsoft® SQL Server™ databases, much more quickly than you can create native backup files.

With SQL Backup's compression, your backup files are usually 50% to 95% smaller than native SQL Server backups. You can also encrypt your backup files using 128- or 256-bit key Advanced Encryption Standard encryption. The network resilience feature in the Pro edition enables backup and log shipping activities to resume automatically if they are interrupted by a network outage. SQL Backup also features an interactive time line for quick access to a graphical overview of completed backup and restore activities, and jobs scheduled for the future. SQL Backup works with remote SQL Servers and SQL Server clusters.

SQL Backup is compatible with SQL Server 2008, 2005 and 2000.

SQL Backup Lite retired

SQL Backup is now only available in the SQL Backup Pro edition. SQL Backup Lite has been retired.

If you are currently using SQL Backup Lite and have not yet been contacted by Red Gate about a free upgrade, please go to the SQL Backup product page and download it from there. You can use your existing serial key to license the Pro version.

You can use SQL Backup Pro to:

back up multiple databases and transaction logs (and set up scheduled backup jobs)
restore multiple backups
set up scheduled transaction log shipping
generate automatic email notification when the backup or restore operation is completed, or if errors have occurred during the process
provide extra resilience against network outages for backups and log shipping
back up and restore databases from the command line interface
run SQL Backup processes while you are connected to the database server remotely using an application such as Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio, or connectivity tools such as ADO, OLEDB, ODBC
recover individual objects from a SQL Backup file with SQL Object Level Recovery Pro
generate Microsoft Tape Format (MTF) files from SQL Backup files

SQL Backup quality improvement program

SQL Backup can automatically send anonymous information about the features you use to Red Gate. This information helps Red Gate improve the reliability and performance of SQL Backup and decide which new features to add and bug fixes to prioritize.

When you run the SQL Backup graphical user interface for the first time, you are given the option to participate in the quality improvement program. If you choose not to participate, SQL Backup will not send any usage data back to Red Gate.

If you later change you mind about participating in the quality improvement program, you can change your participation status by following these instructions on the SQL Backup Support Center.

Technical notes

SQL Backup does not support cumulative backups in a single file.
SQL Backup fully supports FILESTREAM storage introduced in SQL Server 2008.
To restore a backup file that was created by SQL Backup v6, onto a SQL Server instance running SQL Backup v5, you must first convert the backup file.