With Virtual Database, you can create and manage Virtual Databases from backups created by native SQL Server and SQL Safe Backup. You can attach full backups or a series of backups. Virtual Databases behave just like actual live physical databases.
Virtual Database allows you to:
- Recover any object from the backup file without having to restore the database.
- Analyze and report on objects and permissions in backup files without having to restore the database.
- Access backup files as though they were read-only databases.
When creating a backup or backup policy, you can check the option to generate maps for InstantRestore and SQL virtual database. This metadata includes data files for each database included in your backup. Generating this metadata is optional; SQL Safe can mount a Virtual Database without the metadata. However, these metadata improves the performance during the virtual database creation.
You can create Virtual Databases from a single full backup file or multiple backup files. You can also create multiple Virtual Databases from the same backup file, which allows you to make Virtual Databases that include data from different points in time. Once created, the Virtual Databases can be fully managed and queried using Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio or another database management tool.
What is a Virtual Database?
Virtual Database is a powerful one-of-a-kind solution that lets you attach SQL Server backup files and query them like real databases. With its revolutionary, patent-pending technology, you gain instant access to critical data in a backup file without spending the time and storage previously required for restore. In minutes, you can create a Virtual Database and then use any native SQL Server or third-party tools to query and extract the data you need.
For more information about SQL Virtual Database, see working with Virtual Database.
Are there disk space recommendations for the Virtual Database metadata?
Use the following table to help you set aside the appropriate amount of disk space for the Virtual Database metadata SQL Safe generates. Typically, this metadata requires only a fraction of the disk space consumed by a fully restored backup.
| Size of Backup | Additional Disk Space |
|---|---|
1 TB | 105 MB |
500 GB | 51 MB |
100 GB | 10 MB |
1 GB | 105 KB |
500 MB | 51 KB |