Backup Database from ServerGrid.com

Question

Hello I have a hosting account with servergrid.com. I want to backup my database, they say I have to use Sql Server Integration Service to backup the database and I would need a commercial version of Sql Server management studio.

I have Sql Server 2005 Developer Edition. I have no idea how to do SSIS backup. I tried playing around with the Sql Server Integration Services Project in VS2005 .. but I failed.

Google also seems to have no step-by-step guide for Non-DBA's like me.

Can anybody point me to/write me a Step-by-Step instructions on how to backup database using SSIS? and also if possible how to restore the database again to the host

Answer 1

SSIS is not really a database backup tool.

If you have a fixed number of tables, you can export the data from SQL Server to comma-separated or raw files - i.e. do the data export using SSIS. It is easy to create such package using SSIS project if you have small number of tables. But if you have a lot of tables it is all manual process. Also it could be hard to automate this - every time you add/remove/change a table or a column, you have to regenerate the SSIS package used to export your data.

SSIS does only data export, so you need a separate tool to do metadata backup (table and stored proc definitions). You can export the metadata using Management Studio (simply script database to text file).

One can call these two tools together a poor man backup tool, but if you metadata changes often you'll probably want to use the real SQL backup tool. Not sure why the hosting guys say you have to use SSIS - maybe they don't want to give you backup permissions to ensure DB safety, but SSIS is not the simplest way to do database backup.

Answer 2

You have a local drive on this machine, correct?

Get access to the sql prompt, through their tools or sqlcmd.

BACKUP DATABASE MYDB TO DISK = 'E:\backups\mydb.bak'

Then FTP that file offsite.

Otherwise, forget these creeps that make you use SSIS to perform tasks that can be done with one line of text.