SQL Verify - Online help - About SQL Verify

SQL Verify was created with the aim of providing you, a SQL Server DBA, the means to verify your SQL Server backups easily and reliably.

The basic idea is that you cannot rely on RESTORE VERIFYONLY to validate your backup files (we explain why here). You need to restore the backup sets to really gain the confidence that your backup sets are recoverable. Once you've done that at least once, there is a better way to validate the backup files when you copy them to other locations for storage, or when you just want to periodically ensure that the backup sets you have on disk are still recoverable. You can read more about that here.

Now setting up a system to do the above isn't easy, and that's where SQL Verify comes in. SQL Verify helps you to easily:

set up jobs to verify and restore the latest backup files

generate checksums to be able to quickly check the integrity of your backup files

run database consistency checks on your databases

copy files to remote locations

upload files to FTP servers

download files from FTP servers

run your own SQL Server scripts and command line applications as part of your backup files maintenance job

delete old files

use notifications to inform you when verification or any of the other jobs has failed

There is more to a disaster recovery planning than just taking backups periodically. SQL Verify lets you handle all the dirty work required to ensure your backup sets are recoverable in an easy, fuss-free manner.

Next steps:

find out more about the individual components that make up SQL Verify

look at the examples of how SQL Verify can accomplish some common backup files maintenance tasks

learn about the various jobs and their capabilities

set up notifications to inform you of failures