INTERVIEW Qustions on LOG SHOPPING

LOG SHPPING RELEATED:

Question : IS it possible to log ship database between SQL 2000 & SQL 2005?
Answer: No, thats impossible, In SQL 2005 transaction log architecture is changed compared to SQL
2000 and hence you won’t be able to restore log backups from SQL 2000 to SQL 2005 or vice versa.
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Question: How to failover in SQL 2005 Log Shipping?

Answer: I can better ask to check out the link Failover in SQL 2005 Log Shipping, Deepak written this
article clearly.
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Question:I’m getting the below error message in restoration job on secondary server, WHY?
[Microsoft SQL-DMO (ODBC SQLState: 42000)]
Error 4305: [Microsoft][ODBC SQL Server Driver][SQL Server]The log in this backup set
begins at LSN 7000000026200001, which is too late to apply to the database. An earlier
log backup that includes LSN 6000000015100001 can be restored.
[Microsoft][ODBC SQL Server Driver][SQL Server]RESTORE LOG is terminating abnormally.
Answer:Was your sql server or agent restarted Y’day in either source or destination ? because the error
states there is a mismatch in LSN. A particular tran log was not applied in the destination server hence
the subsequent tran logs cannot be applied as a result !
You can check log shipping monitor \ log shipping tables to check the which transaction log is last applied
to secondary db, if the next consecutive transaction logs are available in the secondary server share
folder you manually RESTORE the logs with NORECOVERY option, Once you restored all the logs
automatically from the next cycle the job will work fine.

Incase if you are not able to find the next transaction log in secondary server shared folder, you need to
reconfigure log shipping. Try the below tasks to re-establish log shipping again.

 Disable all the log shipping jobs in source and destination servers
 Take a full backup in source and restore it in secondary server using the With Standby option
 Enable all the jobs you disabled previously in step1
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Question: Is it possible load balance in log shipping?

Answer:Yes ofcourse its possible in log shipping, while configuring log shipping you have the option to
choose standby or no recovery mode, there you select STANDBY option to make the secondary database
readonly. For SQL 2005 log shipping configuration check out the link 10 Steps to configure Log Shipping
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Question: Can I take full backup of the log shipped database in primary server??
Answer: In SQL Server 2000 you won’t be able to take full backup of log shipped database, because this
will break the LSN chain and it directly affects the log shipping.
In SQL Server 2005, yes its possible. You can take full backup of log shipped database and this won’t
affect the log shipping.
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Question : Can I shrink log shipped database log file??

Answer: Yes ofcourse you can shrink the log file, but you shouldn’t use WITH TRUNCATE option. If you
use this option obviously log shipping will be disturbed.
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Question : Can I take full backup of the log shipped database in secondary server??
Answer: No chance , you won’t be able to execute BACKUP command against a log shipped database in
secondary server.
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Question: I’ve configured Log shipping successfully on standby mode, but in the restoration
job I’m getting the below error. What I do to avoid this in future??
Message
2006-07-31 09:40:54.33 *** Error: Could not apply log backup file ‘C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL
Server\MSSQL.1\MSSQL\Backup\LogShip\TEST_20060731131501.trn’ to secondary database ‘TEST’.
(Microsoft.SqlServer.Management.LogShipping) ***
2006-07-31 09:40:54.33 *** Error: Exclusive access could not be obtained because the database is in
use.
RESTORE LOG is terminating abnormally.(.Net SqlClient Data Provider) ***
Answer: To restore transaction logs to the secondary db, SQL Server needs exclussive access on the
database. When you configure it in standby mode, users will be able to access the database and runs
query against the secondary db. Hence If the scheduled restore jobs runs at that time, the db will have a
lock and it won’t allow SQL Server to restore the tlogs. To avoid this you need to check “Disconnect users
in the database when restoring backups” options in log shipping configuration wizard. Check the link 10
Steps to configure Log Shipping.
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Question : Can you tell me the pre-requisites for configuring log shipping??
Answer : Check out the link Pre-requisites for Log Shipping.
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Question : Suddenly I’m getting the error below, How can I rectify this???
[Microsoft SQL-DMO (ODBC SQLState: 42000)] Error 4323: [Microsoft][ODBC SQL Server Driver][SQL
Server]The database is marked suspect. Transaction logs cannot be restored. Use RESTORE DATABASE
to recover the database.
[Microsoft][ODBC SQL Server Driver][SQL Server]RESTORE LOG is terminating abnormally
Answer : We had the same issue some time ago, this was related to a new file being created in a
filegroup on the source. Don’t know if this applies to your case, but restoring a backup of this new file on
the secondary server solved the problem.

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Question : Is it possible to log ship database from SQL server 2005 to SQL server 2008 and
vice versa?
Answer : Yes you can log ship database from SQL server 2005 to SQL Server 2008 this will work.
However log shipping from SQL Server 2008 to SQL Server 2005 is not possible because you wont be
able to restore SQL server 2008 backup to SQL Server 2005 (downgrading version)