Posted by Mike on 04/13/06 23:00

In SQL 2000 I have been using Log Shipping to keep a warm backup copy
of all my production databases in a different site. Prior to setting
up my Maintenance Plan to implement log shipping, on my Secondary
server I create the warm backups using the following statement:

RESTORE DATABASE ProdDB FROM DISK = 'E:\Backup\ProdDB\ProdDB.bak'
WITH MOVE 'ProdDB_Data' TO 'E:\DATA\ProdDB.mdf',
MOVE 'ProdDB_Log' TO 'E:\DATA\ProdDB.ldf',
STANDBY = 'E:\Backup\ProdDB\ProdDB_Standby'
GO

This makes the primary and secondary servers start with exactly the
same database. Then I implement my maintenance plan to establish the
log shipping. One of the final steps before completing the maint plan
setup in the maint plan wizard is to set the destination database
Secondary Load State to Standby Mode, and check off "Terminate users in
database (Recommended).

Now its been very long since this plan was set up, the initial
ProdDB.bak file has long been deleted. Only transaction logs exist on
my secondary server.

If my primary server has a catastrophic failure due to a fire, how can
I recover/BACKUP a copy of my warm backup database and RESTORE it to a
new Primary server?

Any help would be greatly appreciated,

Mike

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