ExpressMaint

Closed Issue: Trouble using network share as backup device [3313]

jaspersmith — Thu, 16 May 2013 11:03:40 GMT

I am trying to specify a remote network share as my backup location, but am having difficulty.

This command line...

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ExpressMaint -S .\<instance name> -D BACKUP_THIS_DB -T DB -R . -RU WEEKS -RV 1 -B "\\servername\folder\DBBackups" -BU DAYS -BV 1 -DS -V
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

...results in the following error...

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Expressmaint utility v1.4 , Logged on to SQL Server [servername\instancename] as [domain\user]
Created by Jasper Smith (www.sqldbatips.com)

Starting backup on 1/18/2008 5:14:12 PM

[1] Database BACKUP_THIS_DB: Backup starting at 1/18/2008 5:14:14 PM
An exception occurred while executing a Transact-SQL statement or batch.
Cannot open backup device '\\servername\folder\DBBackups\BACKUP_THIS_DB\20080118_1714_BACKUP_THIS_DB_FullBackup.bak'. Operating system error 5(Access is denied.).
BACKUP DATABASE is terminating abnormally.
Backup failed for Server 'servername\instancename'.
An exception occurred while executing a Transact-SQL statement or batch.
Cannot open backup device '\\servername\folder\DBBackups\BACKUP_THIS_DB\20080118_1714_BACKUP_THIS_DB_FullBackup.bak'. Operating system error 5(Access is denied.).
BACKUP DATABASE is terminating abnormally.

Expressmaint finished unsuccessfully at 1/18/2008 5:14:14 PM with Return Code(-5)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I've tried mapping \\servername\folder\DBBackups\ to z: which changed the command line to...

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ExpressMaint -S .\<instance name> -D BACKUP_THIS_DB -T DB -R . -RU WEEKS -RV 1 -B z: -BU DAYS -BV 1 -DS -V
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

...and that fails for a different reason...

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Expressmaint utility v1.4 , Logged on to SQL Server [servername\instancename] as [server\instance]
Created by Jasper Smith (www.sqldbatips.com)

Starting backup on 1/18/2008 5:12:44 PM

[1] Database BACKUP_THIS_DB: Backup starting at 1/18/2008 5:12:46 PM
An exception occurred while executing a Transact-SQL statement or batch.
Cannot open backup device 'z:\BACKUP_THIS_DB\20080118_1712_BACKUP_THIS_DB_FullBackup.bak'. Operating system error 3(The system cannot find the path specified.).
BACKUP DATABASE is terminating abnormally.
Backup failed for Server 'servername\instancename'.
An exception occurred while executing a Transact-SQL statement or batch.
Cannot open backup device 'z:\BACKUP_THIS_DB\20080118_1712_BACKUP_THIS_DB_FullBackup.bak'. Operating system error 3(The system cannot find the path specified.).
BACKUP DATABASE is terminating abnormally.

Expressmaint finished unsuccessfully at 1/18/2008 5:12:46 PM with Return Code(-5)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Any ideas?

Closed Feature: Cannot backup DB if another one corrupted [3951]

jaspersmith — Thu, 16 May 2013 11:03:40 GMT

Hi there!

My use case is following:

I attach database A right from CD.
Then I remove disk with A from CD-drive and try to backup database B

Expressmaint returns following error in log:
--------------------------------------
Starting backup on 06.03.2008 12:06:48
Unable to open the physical file "F:\database_2007_Data.MDF". Operating system error 21: "21(....)".
Expressmaint finished unsuccessfully at 06.03.2008 12:06:48 with Return Code(-4)
--------------------------------------

So, can your tool backup specific database not checking other db's?

Thanks,
McSeem

Closed Feature: What about "Update statistics" / "sp_updatestats" [4348]

jaspersmith — Thu, 16 May 2013 11:03:39 GMT

Hi

Could you consider adding "updatestats" as an extra maintenance operation?
I can see that I can use "REINDEX" to rebuild indexes, and that will take care of the statistics as well, but since using WITH (ONLINE = ON) is not available in "SQL Express", it means that each table will become inaccessible during the rebuild.

But if I use "REORG", there is no option to update statistics after that, and in many cases thats the best way to optimize query performance.
On small databases, running "UPDATE STATISTICS tablename WITH FULLSCAN" on all tables, will not take too long (and will not lock the tables during the operation).

Thanks

Closed Issue: fillfactor' is not a recognized ALTER INDEX REORGANIZE option [4664]

jaspersmith — Thu, 16 May 2013 11:03:39 GMT

While trying to run a reorg command against a user database, I get the following error. This is happening on more then one server, on different databases.

Reorganizing indexes for table dbo.dtproperties
Reorganizing indexes for table dbo.Groups
Reorganize failed for Index 'PK_Groups'.
An exception occurred while executing a Transact-SQL statement or batch.
'fillfactor' is not a recognized ALTER INDEX REORGANIZE option.

I seem to be able to manually run a rebuild or reorganize on the index from within SQL Management Studio Express.

The database was originally created on a SQL 2000 Server, and was attached to SQL 2005 Express.

Any suggestions?

Closed Issue: Can not backup WSUS SQL Express instance [4920]

jaspersmith — Thu, 16 May 2013 11:03:39 GMT

I've been trying unsucessfully to backup a WSUS SQL Express instance via the following cmd: "C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\ExpressMaint.exe" -S SOCRATES-MON\MICROSOFT##SSEE -D ALL -T DB -B c:\backup -BU DAYS -BV 3 -V

I am getting the following error in the event log:
Event Type: Error
Event Source: .NET Runtime 2.0 Error Reporting
Event Category: None
Event ID: 1000
Date: 21/05/2008
Time: 10:27:41 p.m.
User: N/A
Computer: SOCRATES-MON
Description:
Faulting application expressmaint.exe, version 1.4.0.0, stamp 44945c8c, faulting module kernel32.dll, version 5.2.3790.4062, stamp 46264680, debug? 0, fault address 0x0000bee7.

For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.
Data:
0000: 41 00 70 00 70 00 6c 00 A.p.p.l.
0008: 69 00 63 00 61 00 74 00 i.c.a.t.
0010: 69 00 6f 00 6e 00 20 00 i.o.n. .
0018: 46 00 61 00 69 00 6c 00 F.a.i.l.
0020: 75 00 72 00 65 00 20 00 u.r.e. .
0028: 20 00 65 00 78 00 70 00 .e.x.p.
0030: 72 00 65 00 73 00 73 00 r.e.s.s.
0038: 6d 00 61 00 69 00 6e 00 m.a.i.n.
0040: 74 00 2e 00 65 00 78 00 t...e.x.
0048: 65 00 20 00 31 00 2e 00 e. .1...
0050: 34 00 2e 00 30 00 2e 00 4...0...
0058: 30 00 20 00 34 00 34 00 0. .4.4.
0060: 39 00 34 00 35 00 63 00 9.4.5.c.
0068: 38 00 63 00 20 00 69 00 8.c. .i.
0070: 6e 00 20 00 6b 00 65 00 n. .k.e.
0078: 72 00 6e 00 65 00 6c 00 r.n.e.l.
0080: 33 00 32 00 2e 00 64 00 3.2...d.
0088: 6c 00 6c 00 20 00 35 00 l.l. .5.
0090: 2e 00 32 00 2e 00 33 00 ..2...3.
0098: 37 00 39 00 30 00 2e 00 7.9.0...
00a0: 34 00 30 00 36 00 32 00 4.0.6.2.
00a8: 20 00 34 00 36 00 32 00 .4.6.2.
00b0: 36 00 34 00 36 00 38 00 6.4.6.8.
00b8: 30 00 20 00 66 00 44 00 0. .f.D.
00c0: 65 00 62 00 75 00 67 00 e.b.u.g.
00c8: 20 00 30 00 20 00 61 00 .0. .a.
00d0: 74 00 20 00 6f 00 66 00 t. .o.f.
00d8: 66 00 73 00 65 00 74 00 f.s.e.t.
00e0: 20 00 30 00 30 00 30 00 .0.0.0.
00e8: 30 00 62 00 65 00 65 00 0.b.e.e.
00f0: 37 00 0d 00 0a 00 7.....

Please advise what the issue is, thanks.

Closed Issue: Unhandled Exception: System.Security.SecurityException [5217]

jaspersmith — Thu, 16 May 2013 11:03:39 GMT

When run from a network share it generates an exception:

P:\> expressmaint -?
Unhandled Exception: System.Security.SecurityException: Request for the permission of type 'System.Security.Permissions.SecurityPermission, mscorlib, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089' failed.
.
.
where "P:" is a network share.
The work around is not to run it from a network share but this is not ideal for us.

Closed Issue: "Value cannot be null" error when not using reporting (-R option) [6511]

jaspersmith — Thu, 16 May 2013 11:03:38 GMT

When I launch the ExpressMaint command-line utility 1.5.0.0 without using the reporting option (-R) it will throw a "Value cannot be null" error for every database it is trying to backup. The backup will finish correctly though. The workaround is to specify the -R, -RV and -RU parameters and simply use the reporting option.

Here's an example call for a system with 2 user databases:
ExpressMaint -S (local)\SQLEXPRESS -D ALL_USER -T DB -B C:\Rado\Backup\SQL2005\ -BU WEEKS -BV 1

Here's the output this generates:
Value cannot be null.
Parameter name: path
at System.IO.StreamWriter..ctor(String path, Boolean append, Encoding encoding, Int32 bufferSize)
at System.IO.StreamWriter..ctor(String path, Boolean append)
at ExpressMaint.ExpressMaint.WriteToFile(String content, String path)
Value cannot be null.
Parameter name: path
at System.IO.StreamWriter..ctor(String path, Boolean append, Encoding encoding, Int32 bufferSize)
at System.IO.StreamWriter..ctor(String path, Boolean append)
at ExpressMaint.ExpressMaint.WriteToFile(String content, String path)

Closed Issue: Error in log file [6538]

jaspersmith — Thu, 16 May 2013 11:03:38 GMT

The log contains the following error:
Incorrect syntax near 's'.
Unclosed quotation mark after the character string ''.

The command was:
ExpressMaint.exe -S (local)\SomeInstance -D ALL_USER -T LOG -B "D:\Backup" -V -BU DAYS -BV 3 -R "D:\Backup" -RU DAYS -RV 3 -A -C

The server has a database with an apostrophe in the name.

Closed Issue: Issue with user instances [6940]

jaspersmith — Thu, 16 May 2013 11:03:38 GMT

Hi, I've been using ExpressMaint 1.6.00 against SQL Server Express 2005 successfully for a few months and it has been working really well, thanks!
But, one of our developers has taken to using the user instance feature or SQL Server (by attaching a dbfile on connection). This causes the following error in the log
[7] Database C:\TEMP\PLAY\FUSION\DELTA.MDF: Backup starting at 20/01/2009 11:46:31
The given path's format is not supported
And the utility does not continue on to the next DB (even though I’ve specified the –C switch).
Is there a way to exclude user instances or would it be possibly for the utility to continue after such an error?
Thanks
Jon

Closed Issue: No database backups where database was not started before backup operation [7299]

trexik — Thu, 16 May 2013 11:03:38 GMT

Hi

There is a problem with backuping up user databases on SQL Server 2008 Express using ExpressMaint.exe.
I have noticed, that if I invoke Your utility before database was started (for example after SQL Server restart but befor any database usage), ExpressMain.exe "doesn't see" this database and doesn't wait for start of this database.
In operation log I have only this:

Expressmaint utility v1.7.0.1 , Logged on to SQL Server [***] as [***]
Created by Jasper Smith (www.sqldbatips.com)
Starting backup on 2009-03-18 11:17:37
[1] Delete old Report files...
0 file(s) deleted.
Expressmaint finished successfully at 2009-03-18 11:17:38 with Return Code(0)

I SQL Server log on the time of backup start by ExpressMaint.exe I have "Starting up database [name of db]", but this db is not backuped up.

Could You fix this issue?
I am using Your utility to backuping up databases on SQL Server 2005 Express too and I don't remember behavior like that...
To reproduce this issue simply restart SQL Server 2008, do not connect to databses or do not run SQL Server Management Studio, then invoke ExpressMaint.exe (I am using ALL_USER option).

Best regards

Closed Issue: offline databases kill it [7666]

justlikemae — Thu, 16 May 2013 11:03:37 GMT

I tried to do a backup of all user databases. One of them was taken offline (deliberately).
When running my expressmaint cmd file, it died with an error about couldn't access db "NAME" because it was offline.
It did not work at all, even though I have the -C option in my batch, and would expect it to continue with the other dbs okay.

It would be nice if the -C switch worked for offline errors, or if there were another switch to ignore offline databases entirely.

Closed Feature: Custom backup filename format string [8890]

jaspersmith — Thu, 16 May 2013 11:03:37 GMT

Hi,

I am using the expressMaint console. I need the backup file name to be in the following format:

<dbname>_7080_<yyyymmdd>

Is there any way to do this?

New Post: expressmaint.sql on SQL Server 2012

jcfore21 — Wed, 08 May 2013 20:16:07 GMT

I've seen issues in the Issue Tracker for the command line utility for SQL Server 2012 but what I've gathered from the Home page of this site is - only up to SQL Server 2008 R2 is supported.

Will the expressmaint sql script work on SQL Server 2012? We are wanting to support SQL 2012 in our next release and we have been using expressmaint for a number of years to do automatic backups. Will we have to come up with another method if we want to support it?

Thanks.

New Post: App does not run.

H_A_W_K — Wed, 08 May 2013 18:13:39 GMT

When I tried to launch the app it closes. Running on Windows 7. Any ideas?

New Post: changing backup extensions - ExpressMaint

mharpaz — Fri, 03 May 2013 17:52:45 GMT

Is there any way to change the extension of a sqlserver backups from .bak to something else. I am trying to have Carbonite keep backups of the backups. (This is required - Carbonite should not be used to back up the actual database files). The problem is that Carbonite will not back up anything with a .bak extension.

New Post: How do you run a transaction log backup using parameters?

drdv — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 17:52:25 GMT

Note: Db's must not be using simple recovery model.

Modify the parameter SQL helper file and change the operation type from “DB” to a variable called $(OPTYPE) and just add a parameter to the command line argument.

<command line>
sqlcmd -S .\SQLSERVER2012EXP -i"C:\ExpressMaint\SqlBackupTool.SQLSERVER\bin\SQLBackupByParam.sql" -v DB = "ALL_USERS" -v OPTYPE = "LOG" -v DBRETAINUNIT = "copies" -v DBRETAINVAL = "3"

<file contents of “SQLBackupByParam.sql”>
exec expressmaint
@database = '$(DB)',
@optype = '$(OPTYPE)',
@backupfldr = 'C:\ExpressMaint\SqlBackupTool.SQLSERVER\Backups',
@reportfldr = 'C:\ExpressMaint\SqlBackupTool.SQLSERVER\Reports',
@verify = 1,
@dbretainunit = '$(DBRETAINUNIT)',
@dbretainval = '$(DBRETAINVAL)',
@rptretainunit = 'copies',
@rptretainval = 7,
@report = 1

New Post: How do you run a transaction log backup using parameters?

drdv — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 14:32:28 GMT

How do you run a transaction log backup using a parameter file?
The following expressmaint command runs in less than one second and seems to do nothing, no error and not much in the report.

<Command line>
sqlcmd -S .\SQLSERVER2012EXP -i"C:\ExpressMaint\SqlBackupTool.SQLSERVER\bin\SQLBackupByParam.sql" -v DB = "ALL_USERS" -v DBRETAINUNIT = "copies" -v DBRETAINVAL = "3"

<contents of file: SQLBackupByParam.sql>
exec expressmaint
@database = '$(DB)',
@optype = 'LOG',
@backupfldr = 'C:\ExpressMaint\SqlBackupTool.SQLSERVER\Backups',
@reportfldr = 'C:\ExpressMaint\SqlBackupTool.SQLSERVER\Reports',
@verify = 1,
@dbretainunit = '$(DBRETAINUNIT)',
@dbretainval = '$(DBRETAINVAL)',
@rptretainunit = 'copies',
@rptretainval = 7,
@report = 1

<contents of report file>
Expressmaint utility, Logged on to SQL Server [xxx\SQLSERVER2012EXP] as [XXX\xxx]
Starting backup on Apr 30 2013 10:29AM

[1] Delete Old Backup Files...
[2] Delete Old Report Files...

0 file(s) deleted.

Expressmaint processing finished at Apr 30 2013 10:29AM (Return Code : 0)

New Post: Links are broken on the home page

BGM — Wed, 03 Apr 2013 15:29:24 GMT

Salve! The documentation links on the Home page of this project seem broken.

New Post: Folder "does not exist on this server," But it does!

dhaggard — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 18:04:36 GMT

Never mind.

I discovered that the permissions for the Network Service account were being set on the "C:\CloudSync\" folder, but not being inherited by the child folders. Even with multiple attempts.

Yes, I have full admin rights to the machine.

When I set the permissions on the "C:\CloudSync\Google Drive\" folder, the permissions inherited all the way down.

Now ExpressMaint is working as expected.

New Post: Folder "does not exist on this server," But it does!

dhaggard — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 17:56:03 GMT

I am running 64-bit SQLExpress 2008R2, on 64-bit Windows 7 Professional.

ExpressMaint gives me the following error:

Msg 50000, Level 16, State 1, Procedure expressmaint, Line 157
The folder C:\CloudSync\Google Drive\DatabaseTxfer\OfficeBackup\ does not exist on this server

The folder exists. I can paste the folder path from the error message into Windows' Run box, and the folder opens.

SQLExpress service is running under the "Network Service" account. This account has "Full Control" access to the folder.

What might I be missing?