Shandy's Blog

SQL Backup provides an alternative application to create backups and restore from backups SQL Server or MSDE databases.

Installation

I received my download location and licence key via email. The download was around 5 Meg. The installation was seemless. If you want to run SQL Backup remotely you will need to enter a user id & password combination (or use Windows Authentication) for a user that has administrator password. Apparently an extended stored procedure needs to be installed.

Use

I performed my tests using MSDE 2000 running on XP Pro SP2.

The SQL Backup comes with a GUI listing the available databases in the left hand pane and a tabbed right hand pane where Activity Log, Processes & Backup History can be selected. There are toolbar and menu entries to allow you to connect to a different database, perform a backup or restore (via a friendly wizard) and set up your options. The wizards were pretty straight forward and made both backing up and restoring very easy to perform. There are choices for full, differential and transactional backups. The backup file can also be a single file, split into multiple files or mirrored so that the same file is backed up to multiple locations. You also have the choice to verify backups on completion.

Note that my backups made with SQL Backup were listed within the Enterprise Manager backup facility but when I tried to use EM to restore them I obviously got an error message. Bear this in mind so you label the SQL Backup backups differently to your EM ones.

Although SQL Backup does not come with its own scheduler it is relatively easy to utilise either the EM or Windows schedulers to schedule tasks and full details on how to do this are included in the help file. It took me less than 5 minutes to set up and execute a scheduled task.

There is a Red Gate Support Forum available to users of SQL Backup

Pros

• I made a backup of my CodeLib and Ontime databases and in the case of Codelib the backup was less than half the size and in the case of OnTime around a third the size of the standard SQL Server backup.
• The help file is pretty comprehensive.
• Email alerts can easily be setup without relying on SQL mail which is handy if you are running MSDE as MSDE does not have this facility.
• Option to encrypt backups with a password.

Cons

• There was no way of specifying a default email address to send any reports to. The email address had to be retyped each time a job was created.
• I used a default backup folder of d:\my documents but if I wanted to change this the dialog box truncated the folder to My and started off in the d:\ folder. Not a big issue but a minor annoyance.

Conclusion

SQL Backup provides an excellent tool for performing backups of SQL Server (or MSDE) databases. The compression ratio is extremely useful as is the speed at which the backups can be created using the GUI. I now use this as my preferred SQL Server backup tool.

I realised that I mention using Bajajs a lot in my Sri Lanka posts and some readers from outside Sri Lanka may not know what a Bajaj is. Bajaj is actually the name of the company that makes the vast majority (99%) of the 3 wheel taxis you see here in Sri Lanka. You will find them parked outside most hotels, bars and in fact on most street corners in Colombo. 95% of them are available for hire.

Bajajs are not metered and how much you pay is entirely up in the air. My wife quite happily gets in one anywhere in Colombo and doesn't bother negotiating the price, simply paying the driver what she thinks is a fair price. Sometimes they will argue but if my wife knows the usual price she will simply give them the money and walk off. We have had the occasional blazing row with a driver. Some of them live in a fantasy world when charging and ask ridiculous prices. If you don't know what the fare should actually be I'd advise you to come to an agreement before you set off. 150 rupees will see you get between most places in central Colombo. There are stories of tourists paying 2000 rupees for a 200 rupee ride. A rough rule of thumb would be 100 rupees for the first KM and then 25 rupees a KM after that. However, some people may bargin better than we do. Generally avoid getting Bajajs outside hotels, bars etc. You can save a lot of money by walking 100 yards down the road and hailing one off the street. Generally the more rundown the Bajaj the better your chances of bargaining. It is actually often cheaper to use an air conditioned cab but you have to ring for those and they are unreliable. A Bajaj is convenient. You'll also need to carry change as often Bajaj drivers will not have much on them. You can ask a Bajaj driver to wait and my wife often does this when she is shopping. Generally there is no charge as such for waiting. The promise of the return fare is enough for it to make it worth the driver's while.

I find Bajajs reasonably comfortable to travel in but note that the views from inside, despite the open sides are limited and you will often find you are sitting in traffic with exhaust fumes coming out close to the level you are sitting at. Having said all that we have travelled between Colombo & Galle (120Km) in a Bajaj and had a terrific time. Most of the other ex-pats think we're a bit strange though ;-)

Be prepared to be stopped by the police and soldiers when in a Bajaj. They seem to do this on a regular basis and the the stop is generally only for a few minutes whilst the driver shows his documentation.

I have included a picture of the Bajaj we took to Galle below:

Last Friday we went to Mollies, a bar in Colombo situated close to Beira Lake but hidden away up a side street. We turned up around 20:30 and it was pretty empty; about 20 people were in when it could probably hold 150. We had some onion rings and potato wedges and a pitcher of Mollies Irish Dark (which went up to 3 by the end of the evening). Mollies has both a snack and main food menu and prices are similar to the other western style bars in Colombo.

There was a live band on called Cosmic Rays, who I understand play at Mollies every other Friday evening. They came on around 22:00 and played two sets. Best band I have seen since I came to Sri Lanka. They played a variety of music from country to popular (the Bee gees seemed a favorite). Once the band got to their second set the place started to fill up and soon the dance floor was pretty full.

Mollies is certainly more of a local Sri Lankan bar than an ex-pat bar. We only saw 5 other ex-pats in all evening, which was a refreshing change from the ex-pat dominated Cheers And Inn On The Green. The locals were a friendly bunch and we stayed until around 02:00 before leaving. Mollies is rapidly becoming our favorite place to eat and drink in Colombo. And the Mollies Dark Irish beer is the best beer in Sri Lanka let alone Colombo :)

The evening was only spoilt by a Bajaj driver wanting 500 rupees for the journey home. It cost 150 to get there and even for allowing the lateness of the hour he was just taking the piss. He got 250 rupees in the end but wasn't happy but then neither was I. We made the mistake of getting a Bajaj right outside Mollies. Normally we walk a few 100 yards onto a main road and hail one. The Bajaj drivers outside the bars and hotels assume you are a tourist and try and charge tourist rates. We should have known better.

This morning we went up to Fort Market to have a look around. Colombo is pretty dead on a Sunday; the Laksala at Fort and Unity Plaza were both closed. However about half the stalls (30 or so I uess) at Fort Market were open. Its right next to the Fort railway station (which is the best reference to give to a Bajaj driver). The stalls mainly sell clothes and leather goods (bags, belts and shoes) but a few stalls also sell batiks.

When browsing in these sort of markets be prepared to be pestered by the shop keepers; we certainly were. Its something you have to live with over in this part of the world :( I deal with it by generally politely ignoring them. If you show an interest in any item on their stall they'll insist on getting it down and bartering with you regardless of whether you actually want the item or not. Don't be intimidated and be prepared to simply walk away as they will usually not accept a verbal statement that you are not interested in buying the item. Be warned that some shopkeepers will leave their stalls and follow you into other shops, down roads etc. trying to barter with you for the item you showed an interest in. This is normal. We had an example of this today when my wife saw a wooden ash tray in the shape of Sri Lanka with a carved elephant on it. The shopkeeper started at 2000 rupees (£12) and my wife finally purchased it for 300 rupees (£1.70), 5 minutes later about 30 yards down the road in a plant shop. Ignore all the protests about it being made from some wood only found on a single inexcessible cliff face somewhere in the hill country in Sri Lanka. It is quite often made from balsa wood (or similar) and just painted over to make it appear like another wood. Trying to argue this point with the shopkeepers is pointless. Even if it is so they will deny it :)

There are a few places that sell coconuts - the orange ones are far more common in Sri Lanka than the brown, hairy ones we usually get in the UK. The shopkeepers will slice off the top for you and give you a straw and you can drink the coconut milk from them. Be prepared to pay 10-20 rupees (6 to 12 pence) for a very refreshing drink.

We now have a new best pizza place in Sri Lanka after our friends Pete & Carol introduced us to the Pizzeria at the Continental Hotel (north side of Galle face green). Sadly they don't deliver but the pizzas are cheaper than Pizza Hut or Dominoes at 300 rupees each. One pizza was quite enough for me. If anyone knows any other good pizza places in Colombo let me know :)

The March 2005 Colombo .NET User Group Meeting was held, as normal, at Gateway in Rodney Street In Borella. As always, entrance is free. Around 20 people attended the meeting this month. We started a bit late, around 18:30 and finished around 20:00.

This month the meeting centered around a talk by Merill on Enterprise Library (EL). Merill gave a brief explanation of application blocks and then briefly explained the 7 different application blocks contained in EL. Merill then gave a detailed explanation about why we would want to use EL and then went on to explain four of the seven application blocks (data access, error handling, logging and instrumentation, configuration) in detail with some excellent examples. Included in Merill's demonstration was a practical demonstration using Visual Studio which included a demonstration of how to perform a full installation of EL, how to include references to EL in projects and how to create C# examples and using the EL configuration manager.

This was a truely excellent presentation on a product I had never heard of before. Merill is an excellent speaker whose enthusiasm comes over whenever he speaks about .NET. He is extremely knowledgable about his subject matter and easily handles any questions (and I always have a few) that get thrown at him during his talks. As a consequence of Merill's presentation I have downloaded and install EL on my laptop :)

I hope to come up with a presentation myself to give to the group but my knowledge base is still very VB.Classic orientated and I am some way behind the other MVPs when it comes to .NET. I am working on it though guys, even if its just a short 15-30 minutes presentation on some basic part of .NET :)

The Colombo .NET User Group has its own forum at http://www.dotnetforum.lk/