Posted by Simon Hayes on 09/29/05 13:06

As far as I know, the backupset table only has successful backups (if
the backup wasn't successful, there wouldn't be a backup set). But I
guess what you should be looking at is the success/failure of the
scheduled job that backs up the database - you can check the
Job.LastRunOutcome property using DMO (SQL2000, COM) or SQL 2005 (SMO,
..NET). Alternatively, you could have the job raise an alert and/or run
a job if it fails, rather than polling it yourself.

If a backup fails, it should be logged in the SQL Server error log and
the Windows event log, so you could check either of them. The DMO/SMO
ReadErrorLog() method can be used for the SQL Server log.

Finally, there are plenty of third party monitoring tools available for
MSSQL, so if you need something only for your own organization, it may
be worth looking at the cost of buying versus the cost of developing
and maintaining your own solution.

Simon

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