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deepayamini
Starting Member
11 Posts |
 Posted - 2010-01-27 : 18:42:49
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| Hi,I had a full recovery plan setup on a database. I am able to recover the database from the backed up files (full, differential and log files) stored in the server's hard disk. But if I try to use the files restored from the TAPE for recovery, I get the following error:Msg 3241, Level 16, State 0, Line 1The media family on device 'C:\Documents and Settings\dyamini\Desktop\Backup\VDEP\Backup\VDEP_Full\VDEP\VDEP_backup_201001221700.bak' is incorrectly formed. SQL Server cannot process this media family.Msg 3013, Level 16, State 1, Line 1RESTORE DATABASE is terminating abnormally.Any ideas why this error comes up? Thanks all of you for your time and thoughts. |
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deepayamini
Starting Member
11 Posts |
Posted - 2010-01-27 : 19:36:47
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| Hi,Well I compared the 2 files (the actual backup file on the server and the one restored from the tape) and both the files are different. The first 2 lines (starting like 'TAPE ....') from the actual backup file are missing from the one restored from the tape. This happens only to the FULL backup file. I dont know if this helps, but I am very much confused as to why the files differ?Thanks in advance.... |
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Kristen
Test
22859 Posts |
Posted - 2010-01-28 : 03:42:31
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| Are you using some direct-backup-from-SQL-to-Tape software?If so I recommend that you don't !! Backup to DISK, using normal SQL backup commands) and then copy files from DISK to TAPE.If you are backing up Disk Files to Tape, and the restore is different to the original there is a problem with the tape system. The tape ought to be storing checksums, so it ought to know that the restored file is not the same as the original - although it might be that that extra verification option is turned off on your system? (Best to turn in on I think!) |
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deepayamini
Starting Member
11 Posts |
Posted - 2010-01-28 : 16:26:45
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| Hi,Thanks for the reply. Actually the backup is done to the Disk and then copied to the tape from the Disk. The backup plan is set up as a maintenance plan (with subplans for every kind of backup). In maintenance plan setup, there is no option for CheckSum. Anyways, the admin did do an cdc check on the files before backing up and the files looked same. But when restored, the full backup file alone differs. Do you think it has something to do with the use of a maintenance plan? I am totally confused as to why the Diff and the log backup files dont differ but the full backup file alone does differ? Please any ideas to help me out, I really really appreciate it. |
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Kristen
Test
22859 Posts |
Posted - 2010-01-29 : 02:42:29
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"The backup plan is set up as a maintenance plan (with subplans for every kind of backup)"Sorry, just to clarify, is this the Tape Backup Maintenance Plan, or the SQL Backup Maintenance Plan  Hmmm ... one possibility is that a backup has been appended to the disk file (since the Tape backup was made) - so the disk file contains more than one backup. Size of the Disk and Tape files will be significantly different if that is the case. If that's the case it would explain why it happens on FULL backups and not on the other types.I've never used multiple backups in a single file but I think that theRESTORE HEADERONLYcommand will give you a list of all backups in a disk file. (See SQL Docs for description of the parameters) |
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deepayamini
Starting Member
11 Posts |
Posted - 2010-01-29 : 12:52:34
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| Hi,It was a SQL backup maintenance plan. Backup files dont get appended as a separate backup file is created for every scheduled time. The disk and the tape restore have the same number of files and the size of those files are same too. But for some reason, a very tiny bit of information is missing from the tape restore (on full backups). Hope I explained it clearly. Thanks for your effort and answers. |
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Kristen
Test
22859 Posts |
Posted - 2010-01-29 : 14:00:50
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| "Hope I explained it clearly"I thought that was what you meant, I just wanted to be 100% sure.I can't imagine how a file can be changed, in that way, copying & restoring from tape. Bizarre! And worrying in case you need to restore in the future.As the saying goes, make a test restore, to a test database, on a frequent-ish basis, otherwise when you need it may be the first time you discover it doesn't work |
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SQL server 2005 restore from TAPE backup fails