1 locating database files, 1 sql server database files – Acronis Backup for Windows Server Essentials - User Guide User Manual

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Copyright © Acronis International GmbH, 2002-2014

option is effective on a physical machine and on a virtual machine where Agent for Windows is
installed.

Other available solutions include:

1. Truncating the logs manually or by using a script. For more information, see "Truncating

transaction logs" (p. 284)

2. For Microsoft Exchange Server, using the dedicated Agent for Exchange.
3. For Microsoft SQL Server, using Agent for SQL.

Application-specific recommendations

See "Best practices when backing up application servers" (p. 288).

11.1.1 Locating database files

This section describes how to find application database files.

We recommend that you find out the database file paths and store them in a safe place. This will
save you time and effort when you will recover the application data.

11.1.1.1 SQL Server database files

SQL Server databases have three types of files:

Primary data files - have the .mdf extension by default. Every database has one primary data file.

Secondary data files - have the .ndf extension by default. Secondary data files are optional. Some
databases may not have them at all, while other databases may have several secondary data
files.

Log files - have the .ldf extension by default. Every database has a least one log file.

Make sure that all of the volumes containing the above files are included in the backup. For example,
if your databases are located in C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL.1\MSSQL\Data\ and
log files are located in F:\TLs\, you need to back up both volumes C:\ and F:\.

Determining paths to all database files of an instance by using Transact-SQL

The following Transact-SQL script can be used "as is" to determine paths to all database files of an
instance.

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