You can perform various kind of administrative jobs in your SQL server database without having a in depth knowledge of SQL server maintenance facilities available with it. The jobs that can be done using this small but powerful utility are:

• Full Database Backup
• Differential Database Backup
• Log Backup
• Housekeeping of backup files
• Database Integrity Checks
• Database Index Rebuilds
• Database Index Reorganization
• Database Statistics Update
• Report Creation

The Expressmaint Utility can be downloaded from the below mentioned links:

ExpressMaint utility for SQL 2005: http://www.sqldbatips.com/samples/code/ExpressMaint.zip

ExpressMaint utility for SQL 2008: http://www.sqldbatips.com/samples/code/ExpressMaint2008.zip

Example Syntax

Note that the entire command should be on one line even though some examples span multiple lines for formatting purposes

1) Full Database Backup of all user databases to c:\backups, verify the backups and report to c:\reports keeping backups for 1 day and reports for 1 week and continue processing other databases if an error is encountered baking up a database

expressmaint -S (local) -D ALL_USER -T DB -R c:\reports -RU WEEKS -RV 1 -B c:\backups -BU DAYS -BV 1 -V -C

2) Full Database Backup of all system databases to c:\backups, verify the backups and report to c:\reports keeping backups for 1 week and reports for 1 week

expressmaint -S (local) -D ALL_SYSTEM -T DB -R c:\reports -RU WEEKS -RV 1 -B c:\backups -BU DAYS -BV 1 -V

3) Log Backup of all user databases to c:\backups, don’t verify the backups and report to c:\reports keeping backups for 1 day and reports for 1  day

expressmaint -S (local) -D ALL_USER -T LOG -R c:\reports -RU DAYS -RV 1 -B c:\backups -BU DAYS -BV 1

4) Check the integrity of the AdventureWorks database and report to c:\reports keeping reports for 1 week

expressmaint -S (local) -D AdventureWorks -T CHECKDB -R c:\reports -RU WEEKS -RV 1

5) Rebuild all indexes in the AdventureWorks database and report to c:\reports keeping reports for 1 day

expressmaint -S (local) -D AdventureWorks -T REINDEX -R c:\reports -RU DAYS -RV 1

6) Update all statistics with fullscan in the AdventureWorks database and report to c:\reports keeping reports for 1 day

expressmaint -S (local) -D AdventureWorks -T STATSFULL -R c:\reports -RU DAYS -RV 1

Automating backups using ExpressMaint

Since SQL Server 2005 Express Edition does not include SQL Agent, we need to rely on the Windows Task Scheduler to run our maintenance tasks. If you are not familiar with how to set up a scheduled task, it’s worth reviewing the Microsoft Knowledge Base article below

How to Schedule Tasks in Windows XP

• Double-click Add Scheduled Task to start the Scheduled Task Wizard, and then click Next in the first dialog box
• Click Browse, browse to Expressmaint.exe, and then click Open.
• Type a name for the task e.g DAILY FULL BACKUP and then choose Daily from the scheduling options
• Click Next, specify the information about the time to run the task e.g. 00:00, and then click Next
• Type the name and password of the account that will execute this task. Make sure that you choose an account that is a syadmin for your instance
• Click Next, select the checkbox to Open the Advanced Properties for this task and then click Finish
• In the Run text box append the arguments you want to pass to the ExpressMaint utility. (You must leave a space after the existing contents)
• Click OK. If prompted, supply the password for the account again

Script to shrink the database

USE <databasename>
DBCC SHRINKDATABASE (<databasename>, 0);
GO

NOTE: <databasename> is the name of the database which you want to shrink. The second parameter in the SHRINKDATABASE command denotes the percentage of free space you want to keep in the database. If you put 0 (Zero) it means the database will be shrunk to the minimum possible size.

Script to shrink the transaction log

USE <databasename>
GO
ALTER DATABASE <databasename> SET RECOVERY SIMPLE
DBCC SHRINKFILE(2,0)
ALTER DATABASE <databasename> SET RECOVERY FULL
GO

NOTE: <databasename> is the name of the database for which you want to shrink the transaction log. Recovery mode of the database needs to be changed to simple to shrink the log file successfully which must be changed back to full.
The first parameter in the DBCC SHRINKFILE command denotes the file which you want to shrink and the log file is defined by the numeric value 2. The second parameter is as same as the SHRINKDATABASE command where 0 (Zero) is shown to shrink the log file to its minimum size.

The above commands can be run through the SQL Query Analyser by connecting to the remote DB from your end. Hopefully this will help you to manage database files to keep them in size.

Run the script below in the Query window on the “Master” database to create the DB copy stored procedure.

SET ANSI_NULLS ON
GO
SET QUOTED_IDENTIFIER ON
GO

USE master
GO

IF object_id(‘dbo.Dbcopy_sp’,'P’) IS NOT NULL
BEGIN
PRINT ‘Procedure already exists. So, dropping it’
DROP PROC dbo.Dbcopy_sp
END
GO

CREATE PROCEDURE Dbcopy_sp
(
@DB varchar(200),
@BackupFile varchar(2000),
@TestDB varchar(200),
@RestoreFile varchar(2000)
)

AS
BEGIN

DECLARE @query varchar(2000)

DECLARE @DataFile varchar(2000)

SET @DataFile = @RestoreFile + ‘.mdf’

DECLARE @LogFile varchar(2000)

SET @LogFile = @RestoreFile + ‘.ldf’

IF @DB IS NOT NULL

BEGIN

SET @query = ‘BACKUP DATABASE ‘ + @DB + ‘ TO DISK = ‘ + QUOTENAME(@BackupFile, ””)

EXEC (@query)

END

IF EXISTS(SELECT * FROM sysdatabases WHERE name = @TestDB)

BEGIN

SET @query = ‘DROP DATABASE ‘ + @TestDB

EXEC (@query)

END

RESTORE HEADERONLY FROM DISK = @BackupFile

DECLARE @File int

SET @File = @@ROWCOUNT

– This always returned 0 for me but the

– RESTORE call returned the number

– of rows associated with the backup. Strange…

DECLARE @Data varchar(500)

DECLARE @Log varchar(500)

SET @query = ‘RESTORE FILELISTONLY FROM DISK = ‘ + QUOTENAME(@BackupFile , ””)

CREATE TABLE #restoretemp

(

LogicalName nvarchar(500),

PhysicalName nvarchar(500),

Type varchar(10),

FilegroupName nvarchar(200),

Size numeric(30,0),

MaxSize numeric(30,0),

FileID bigint,

CreateLSN numeric(25,0),

DropLSN numeric(25,0),

UniqueId uniqueidentifier,

ReadOnlyLSN numeric(25,0),

ReadWriteLSN numeric(25,0),

BackupSizeInBytes bigint,

SourceBlockSize int,

FileGroupId int,

LogGroupGUID uniqueidentifier,

DifferentialBaseLSN numeric(25,0),

DifferentialBaseGUID uniqueidentifier,

IsReadOnly bit,

IsPresent bit

)

INSERT #restoretemp EXEC (@query)

SELECT @Data = LogicalName FROM #restoretemp WHERE type = ‘D’

SELECT @Log = LogicalName FROM #restoretemp WHERE type = ‘L’

PRINT @Data

PRINT @Log

TRUNCATE TABLE #restoretemp

DROP TABLE #restoretemp

SET @query = ‘RESTORE DATABASE ‘ + @TestDB + ‘ FROM DISK = ‘ + QUOTENAME(@BackupFile, ””) +

‘ WITH MOVE ‘ + QUOTENAME(@Data, ””) + ‘ TO ‘ + QUOTENAME(@DataFile, ””) + ‘, MOVE ‘ +

QUOTENAME(@Log, ””) + ‘ TO ‘ + QUOTENAME(@LogFile, ””) + ‘, FILE = 1, RECOVERY’

EXEC (@query)

END
GO

After you run the above script you can find a Stored procedure created in the name of  “Dbcopy_sp” in the master database. You can run the stored procedure manually or call it from scheduled jobs provided by SQL server agent for creating the database copy. The  variables that needs to be passed to the stored procedure are as below:

• @DB = The original database name which you want to copy.
• @BackupFile = The database backup file name that will be created along with the path( e.g : C:\Databases\dbcopy\Sourceddbackup.bak )
• @TestDB = The backup database name that will be created
• @RestoreFile = The new database file name without .mdf/.ldf (e.g  C:\Databases\destinationdb)

For scheduling the database copy creation create a job with below command:

EXEC   Dbcopy_sp    <sourcedatabase> ,  ‘C:\Databases\dbcopy\Sourceddbackup.bak’ ,  <destinationdatabase> ,  ‘C:\Databases\destinationdatabase’

This will create a database named destinationdatabase and the associated .mdf and .ldf files will be placed under the directory “C:\Databases”. You will need to alter the database name and backup/restore location according to your need.

NOTE: The procedure mentioned above uses the file level restore and hence the fields defined in the table “restoretemp” in the stored procedure has to be altered for SQL Server 2000 and SQL Server 2008/2008 R2. Please visit the below links for the exact fields and their data types.

For SQL Server 2000:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa238420%28v=sql.80%29.aspx

For SQL Server 2008/2008 R2

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms173778.aspx

There is an issue with Crystal reports support with Plesk installation . We have found that in spite of  installing the crystal report runtime redistributable package the report won’t show in the web page on any hosted domain in Plesk, but if you run the report under a virtual directory under the default website the report will be displayed properly. The reason behind this is the IIS application pool launching user (identity). By default the “Default Application pool” launches using the “Network Service” privilege which has the privilege to access the Crystal report assemblies that are referenced in your web.config file.  By Default when a domain is hosted through Plesk control panel it creates a separate application pool for it and the user to launch its application pool is set to “IWPD_domain”. So to resolve the issue either one has to change the application pool Identity to “Network Service” or create a separate application pool using “DefaultApppol” as template and then change the application setting of the website to use that newly created application pool. Remember to set inheritable NTFS permission to the “Network Service” user on your web site.

You can download the crystal report redistributable packages from the link and install it:

https://websmp130.sap-ag.de/sap(bD1lbiZjPTAwMQ==)/bc/bsp/spn/bobj_download/main.htm.
A step by step pictorial representation is given below:

Step 1

Step 2

Step 3

Step 4

Step 5

Step 6

Please note in the ASP.NET application web.config file ensure that “identity impersonate” is set to false like <identity impersonate=”false”/> otherwise the report will not be loaded properly and will give some error like:

Error in File C:\WINDOWS\TEMP\EmployeeFull {4D249D66-7F13-401C-BFF2-9BC7E04934EF}.rpt:
Access to report file denied. Another program may be using it.

In short we can say that to display the crystal reports properly we should remember two important setting:

1. The application pool launch identity must be set as “Network Service”.
2. The “identity impersonate” value should be set to false.

Hope this helps you all to use crystal reports properly.
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