Question

Using osql command, SSQL backup of a database is created.
It is saved to Disk.
Then renamed to match the date of the day backup was taken.
All these files are saved in a single folder all the time.

for example:
Batch1.bat does the following
1) Created backup.bak
2) renamed to backup 12-13-2009.bak (this is done by the combination of % ~ – etc to get the date parameter)

This is now automated to take backup everyday by Task scheduler in Windows.

Can the batch file also be modified to delete backup files older than 7 days? if so, how ?

If it is not possible via batch file, other than manually deleting the files are there any other alternatives to automate the deleting job ?

Thanks in advance, Balaji S

Answer 1

I’m using the same technique to make a backup from database. I’ve created a stored procedure as follows.

Create Procedure [dbo].[CreateBackup]
As
Begin

 Declare @path nvarchar(256),
            @filename nvarchar(256),
   @currentDateTime datetime

 Set @currentDateTime = GetDate()
 Set @path = 'C:\DBBackup\'
 Set @filename = @path + Cast(DatePart(month, @currentDateTime) As nvarchar) + Cast(DatePart(day, @currentDateTime) As nvarchar) + '.bak'

 Backup Database Foo To Disk = @filename

 Set @currentDateTime = DateAdd(day, -3, @currentDateTime)
 Set @filename = 'del ' + @path + Cast(DatePart(month, @currentDateTime) As nvarchar) + Cast(DatePart(day, @currentDateTime) As nvarchar) + '.bak'

 Exec xp_cmdshell @filename

End

To use the xp_cmdshell, you should enable it before.

http://weblogs.sqlteam.com/tarad/archive/2006/09/14/12103.aspx