Issue
Continuum single user system database backup with SQL 2005 Express.
Environment
Continuum Cyberstation single user (SU)
Cause
Method to backup system database.
Resolution
Continuum single user system database backup with SQL 2005 Express.
Using SQL Express Management tool
- Right Click on the Continuumdb> Tasks>Backup
- Add a Destination where you want the .bak file to be located
- Click Ok
Using sqlcmd
With the limited release version of Continuum 1.82 and future 1.9x releases SQL 2005 Express will be the database platform that is used for Single User configurations.
Some of you may remember backing up databases in earlier versions of SQL from the windows command line and recall having to create a backup device in order to perform the backup operation. This is the case for backing up a database in the SQL 2005 Express version as well.
- Open up the Windows command line and type in CD\ and press enter. This puts us at the root of the drive.
- Log on to the SQL 2005 server, by typing sqlcmd -Syourmachinename\sqlexpress and press enter. You should see 1> at this point. If you do not see the 1> prompt at this point, a few things could be going on. Make sure you type in your computer name without spaces following the -S switch. Another problem could be that your user logon doesn't have admin privileges. You need to have admin privileges to backup the database.
- Once at the 1> create a backup device. Type EXEC sp_addumpdevice 'disk', 'MyDBbackup','c:\myTest.bak' and press enter, which should bring you to the 2> prompt
- At the 2> type in GO And press enter. This will create a device that we can now use to backup the database. The device should only need to be created once.
- Now that we have a device named MyDBbackup (you can name yours differently) and are at the 1> again, type in BACKUP database continuumdb TO MyDBbackup with init press enter and you should be at the 2> now type in GO
- You should have a backup of your database at the root of c:\ named mytest.bak It would be a wise idea to write down the name of the device you have created, since you can use the same device again.
- Using the windows task scheduler, you can setup a task to backup your database automatically at the times you've specified in the task scheduler is an easy thing to do.