SQL Server Backup and Restore - Simple Talk

Generating testing data
Chapter 3: Full Database Backups
Getting a decent amount of testing data into a database can be a daunting task, especially when the
database becomes much more complex than our example. Red Gate offers a product, SQL Data Genera-
tor, which will scan your database and table structure to give you a very robust set of options for auto-
matically generating test data. You can also write custom data generators for even the most specific of
projects. See www.red-gate.com/products/SQL_Data_Generator/.
Taking Full Backups
We are now set to go and we're going to discuss taking full backups the "GUI way," in
SSMS, and by using native T-SQL Backup commands.
As you work through the backup examples in this chapter, and throughout the book, for
learning purposes, you may occasionally want to start again from scratch, that is, to drop
the example database, re-create it, and retake the backups. The best way to do this is to
delete the existing backup files for that database, and then drop the database in a way that
also clears out the backup history for that database, which is stored in the msdb database.
This will prevent SQL Server from referencing any old backup information. Listing 3-5
shows how to do this.
EXEC msdb.dbo.sp_delete_database_backuphistory
@database_name = N'DatabaseName'
GO
USE [master]
GO
DROP DATABASE [DatabaseName]
GO
Listing 3-5: Dropping a database and deleting backup history.
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