Presents your 
SQL SERVER E-NEWSLETTER for June 25, 2002

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When can be run restore LABELONLY?

You can only use the RESTORE LABELONLY T-SQL command on striped backups
after the backup has finished. The command returns information on the
striped backup set, and the output's FamilyCount identifies how many 
devices
participated in the striped set. The FamilySequenceNumber output is
important for identifying every participating member device in the 
striped
set.

First, you will need to create a striped backup set. Below is a sample
script used to create dump devices that will hold the database backup 
of
the pubs database. You will need to modify the script to point to an 
area
on the server that has disk space.

The primary reason to include striped backup sets is to place each dump
device on separate disk systems so as to improve backup performance. 
For
simplicity, this sample script has the backup devices all on the same
disk device.

USE MASTER
GO
EXEC sp_addumpdevice @logicalname = 'pubs_diskdump1',
@physicalname = 'c:\pubs_diskdump1.BAK',
@devtype = 'disk'
EXEC sp_addumpdevice  @logicalname = 'pubs_diskdump2',
@physicalname = 'c:\pubs_diskdump2.BAK',
@devtype = 'disk'
EXEC sp_addumpdevice  @logicalname = 'pubs_diskdump3',
@physicalname = 'c:\pubs_diskdump3.BAK',
@devtype = 'disk'

Next, you will need to back up the pubs database to the striped dump
devices. The following sample script backs up the pubs database to the
defined striped backup set. Notice that the MEDIANAME argument, as well 
as the
MEDIADESCRIPTION argument, is shown in the command. Both arguments are
not necessary, but help to identify the striped backup set.

BACKUP DATABASE pubs
TO
pubs_diskdump1,
pubs_diskdump2,
pubs_diskdump3
WITH
FORMAT,
MEDIANAME = 'Pubs_filedump',
MEDIADESCRIPTION = 'Database pubs striped backup.',
STATS = 10

Now that the pubs database is backed up, take a look at the information
in the backup striped set. The following sample script queries the
backup's label information:

RESTORE LABELONLY
FROM pubs_diskdump1
RESTORE LABELONLY
FROM pubs_diskdump2
RESTORE LABELONLY
FROM pubs_diskdump3

To clean up the above scripts, it is necessary to drop the striped
backup devices. The following sample script carries out the cleanup 
tasks:

EXEC sp_dropdevice 'pubs_diskdump1', DELFILE
EXEC sp_dropdevice 'pubs_diskdump2', DELFILE
EXEC sp_dropdevice 'pubs_diskdump3', DELFILE

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