Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Recover Production Box

1 - Copy the master.mdf & .ldf files from the corresponding dev/test server. It should then be at the same SP level and collation as the production box. This will allow SQL to start up successfully, but other databases and logins will be missing and probably marked suspect.
2 - Restore master from the backup. This will put the logins back and you will definitely be back at the correct SP level and have the info about what databases were on the box. In addition, the admin procs will be there for you if there are any.
3 - Restore the LiteSpeed database to get the LiteSpeed backup history and any procs needed to perform further restores if you use Litespeed for backup/restore.
4 - Restore msdb, model, admin db's. The SQL agent should now be able to start, the jobs should all be there, the jobs will run successfully.
5 - Restore the remainder of the databases and take backups.