Hello,
Taking from the link mentioned by Keith, here is just a brief description of the benefits of the SQL agent:
Hello,
The SQL Agent provides the following benefits:
■ Database, transaction log, differential, and filegroup backups, as well as databaserecovery and replacement.
■ An automated restore of the master database.
■ The Intelligent Disaster Recovery option, which automates the disaster recovery
process of SQL 2000 or SQL 7.0, depending upon which SQL version is installed.
In SQL 2000 installations, the SQL Agent provides support for:
■ Backups of multiple instances.
■ For use with the Symantec Backup Exec for Windows Servers - Advanced Disk-based Backup Option (ADBO) and the Advanced Open File Option (AOFO). ADBO and AOFO are separate, add-on components of Backup Exec. The use of ADBO and AOFO can reduce both restore time and backup impact on the server.
■ Standby database. If the primary SQL server fails, or is shut down for maintenance, another database called a standby database can be brought online. The standby database contains a copy of the primary server's databases so that users can continue to access the database even though the primary server is unavailable.
When the primary server is available again, the changes on the standby database
must be restored back to the primary server or the changes will be lost. The
databases on the primary server should then be backed up and restored on the
standby database again.
Backup Exec provides a backup option that enables you to put the database in
standby mode when the log file backup completes, and a recovery completion state of Leave database read-only and able to restore additional transaction logs to
create and maintain a standby database.
■ Database Consistency Checks (DBCC) for each backup and restore job, including a fast database consistency check of only the physical consistency of the database.
■ Full, bulk-logged, and simple recovery models. The simple recovery model is similar to setting the truncate log on checkpoint option in SQL 7.0. With the simple recovery model, copies of the transactions are not stored in the log file, which prevents transaction log backups from being run. Therefore, you can recover the database to the point of the last backup, but you cannot restore the database to the point of failure or to a specific point in time.
■ Restores of transaction logs to a specific point in time or to a named transaction
when log marks are used.
In SQL 7.0 installations, the SQL Agent provides support for:
■ Database Consistency Checks (DBCC) before and after each backup job.
■ Restores of transaction logs to a specific point in time.
