How to: Back Up a Database (SQL Server Management Studio)

This topic explains how to create a full database backup.

1. After connecting to the appropriate instance of the Microsoft SQL Server Database Engine, in Object Explorer, click the server name to expand the server tree.
2. Expand Databases, and depending on the database, either select a user database or expand System Databases and select a system database.
3. Right-click the database, point to Tasks, and then click Back Up. The Back Up Database dialog box appears.
4. In the Database list box, verify the database name. You can optionally select a different database from the list.
5. You can perform a database backup for any recovery model (FULL, BULK_LOGGED, or SIMPLE).
6. In the Backup type list box, select Full.

   Note that after creating a full database backup, you can create a differential database backup

7. Optionally, you can select Copy Only Backup to create a copy-only backup. A copy-only backup is a SQL Server backup that is independent of the sequence of conventional SQL Server backups.

   Note:
   When the Differential option is selected, you cannot create a copy-only backup.

8. For Backup component, click Database.
9. Either accept the default backup set name suggested in the Name text box, or enter a different name for the backup set.
10. Optionally, in the Description text box, enter a description of the backup set.
11. Specify when the backup set will expire and can be overwritten without explicitly skipping verification of the expiration data:
    • To have the backup set expire after a specific number of days, click After (the default option), and enter the number of days after set creation that the set will expire. This value can be from 0 to 99999 days; a value of 0 days means that the backup set will never expire.
      The default value is set in the Default backup media retention (in days) option of the Server Properties dialog box (Database Settings Page). To access this, right-click the server name in Object Explorer and select properties; then select the Database Settings page.
    • To have the backup set expire on a specific date, click On, and enter the date on which the set will expire.
12. Choose the type of backup destination by clicking Disk or Tape. To select the paths of up to 64 disk or tape drives containing a single media set, click Add. The selected paths are displayed in the Backup to list box.

    To remove a backup destination, select it and click Remove. To view the contents of a backup destination, select it and click Contents.

13. To view or select the advanced options, click Options in the Select a page pane.
14. Select an Overwrite Media option, by clicking one of the following:
    • Back up to the existing media set
      For this option, click either Append to the existing backup set or Overwrite all existing backup sets.
      Optionally, select Check media set name and backup set expiration to cause the backup operation to verify the date and time at which the media set and backup set expire.
      Optionally, enter a name in the Media set name text box. If no name is specified, a media set with a blank name is created. If you specify a media set name, the media (tape or disk) is checked to see whether the actual name matches the name you enter here.
    • Back up to a new media set, and erase all existing backup sets
      For this option, enter a name in the New media set name text box, and, optionally, describe the media set in the New media set description text box.
15. In the Reliability section, optionally check:
    • Verify backup when finished.
    • Perform checksum before writing to media, and, optionally, Continue on checksum error.
16. If you are backing up to a tape drive (as specified in the Destination section of the General page), the Unload the tape after backup option is active. Clicking this option activates the Rewind the tape before unloading option.

    Note:
    The options in the Transaction log section are inactive unless you are backing up a transaction log (as specified in the Backup type section of the General page).

17. SQL Server 2008 Enterprise and later supports backup compression. By default, whether a backup is compressed depends on the value of the backup-compression default server configuration option. However, regardless of the current server-level default, you can compress a backup by checking Compress backup, and you can prevent compression by checking Do not compress backup.

Configuring POP3 and IMAP Clients

POP3 and IMAP and SMTP Authentication

Virtualmin configures the Dovecot POP3 and IMAP server for usage with all common mail clients, and Cyrus saslauthd for SMTP authentication on outgoing mail.

POP3/IMAP Username

You can always find the username for a user by looking on the Edit Mail and FTP Users page for the virtual server in which the user exists. It will be displayed in the IMAP/FTP login field. With the exception of users with @ in them, the username will be the same for all services (mail, ssh, FTP, Usermin, etc.).

Username Conventions

Virtualmin, by default, creates system login names by combining the username and the first part of the domain name, separated by a configurable separator (“.” by default). Thus, a user named joe within the virtualmin.com domain would use the login name joe.virtualmin.

This is, of course, completely configurable. To choose the username format used, browse to System Settings:Server Templates and select the Mail for domain section, and locate the Format for usernames that include domain field at the bottom of the page.

user@domain.tld Style Usernames

Virtualmin also supports user@domain.tld style usernames, though there are some caveats in this configuration. Specifically, Postfix does not support delivery to users with @ in them, and so Virtualmin creates two users (one that Postfix will deliver to, and one with @).

In order for SMTP authentication to work with users in this format, saslauthd also needs to be configured to include domain information.

On Red Hat, Fedora, and CentOS systems, edit /etc/sysconfig/saslauthd and add "-r" to the FLAGS= line, save it and restart the saslauthd service.

On Debian and Ubuntu, edit /etc/defaults/saslauthd and add the "-r" flag to the PARAMS= line, save it, and restart the saslauthd service.

Thunderbird

Open the Account Settings dialog. Click the Add Account button in the lower right corner of the window. Select Email account and click Next.

Fill in your name and the email address for this account.

Select POP or IMAP, fill in the hostname of the Virtualmin server in the Incoming Server, and then click Next.

On the next page, fill in the username. Click Next.

Give the account a name (the default will be the email address associated with the account).

Intel’s Second Generation 1.8″ SSD

The latest 1.8″ second generation SSD from Intel is finally hitting the streets. It feels surprisingly heavy in the hand and promises to be a pretty cool player for hip notebook manufacturers. In our case, SecureWebs is using them in our latest entry level servers. Performance tests will follow shortly and we expect fast, fast and fast compared to your normal run of the mill hard drive.

Webmin

Webmin is a web-based interface for system administration for Unix. Using any browser that supports tables and forms (and Java for the File Manager module), you can setup user accounts, Apache, DNS, file sharing and so on.

Webmin consists of a simple web server, and a number of CGI programs which directly update system files like /etc/inetd.conf and /etc/passwd. The web server and all CGI programs are written in Perl version 5, and use no non-standard Perl modules.  All SecureWebs Linux customers get the professional version of webmin and virtualmin.

SecureWebs adds http://solidstatewordpresshosting.com/

http://solidstatewordpresshosting.com/ has been added as a domain aliases to SecureWebs.com for the simple experiment for SEO purposes of selecting domain names with key words in them and then aliases them to another domain name. Does it work? Will try to prove it one way or the other in the coming months.