LiteSpeed for SQL Server 8.9.8 - Security and Compliance Guide

Automatically selects the optimal compression level based on CPU usage or Disk IO. For more information, see Compression Methods.

You can tell Adaptive Compression to optimize backups either for size or for speed. This argument accepts one of the following values:

• Size
• Speed

Processor affinity designates specific processors to run LiteSpeed, while not allowing LiteSpeed to run on the remaining processors.

This argument accepts decimal values and hexadecimal values. If a value begins with "0x" it is interpreted as hexadecimal. A positive 64-bit integer value translates to a binary mask where a value of 1 designates the corresponding processor to be able to run the LiteSpeed process.

NOTE: 32-bit Windows is internally limited to a 32-bit mask, an incoming 64-bit mask will be truncated to 32-bit.

For example, you need to select processors 2, 3, and 6 for use with LiteSpeed. Number the bits from the right to left. The rightmost bit represents the first processor. Set the second, third, and sixth bits to 1 and all other bits to 0. The result is binary 100110, which is decimal 38 or hexadecimal 0x26. Review the following for additional information:

Tip: Before you start tuning the CPU Throttle or Affinity parameters to adjust backup performance, try limiting the number of threads. If you decide to use an affinity value other than default, it is recommended that you limit the threading as well. You may also want to consider using Adaptive Compression to maintain backup performance. For more information, see Adaptive Compression.

Specifies the compression level for the backup. Valid values are 0 through 8. 0 bypasses the compression routines. The remaining values of 1 through 8 specify compression with increasingly aggressive computation. 2 is the default value for disk backups and 7 is the default value for cloud backups.

When choosing a compression level, it is best to try various options using your equipment and data to determine the best option for your environment. Use the Backup Analyzer to test the performance of different compression levels. For more information, see Test Optimal Backup Settings.

NOTE: If both the compression level and Adaptive Compression option are passed in, LiteSpeed will not error out and will select and use Adaptive Compression.

Creates a Double Click Restore executable. This argument accepts one of the following values:

• 1—Creates one Double-Click Restore executable file. Note the following warning: The executable may be greater than 4GB for large databases. Windows Server is unable to run executable files larger than 4GB. However, the file will be convertible/restorable by LiteSpeed file.
• 2—Creates a Double Click Restore loader in the same location. (Default)

For more information, see Double Click Restore Executables.

Specifies encryption level. Works in conjunction with the Key (K) parameter. This argument accepts one of the following values:

• 0—40-bit RC2

• 1—56 bit RC2

• 2—112 bit RC2

• 3—128 bit RC2

• 4—168 bit 3DES

• 5—128 bit RC4

• 6—128 bit AES

• 7—192 bit AES

• 8—256 bit AES

• 9—MS_AES_128

• 10—MS_AES_192

• 11—MS_AES_256

Specifies the date and time when the backup expires. LiteSpeed will not overwrite this file until expiration datetime is passed. This argument accepts one of the following formats:

• yyyy-mm-dd
• yyyy-mm-dd hh:mm:ss

Specifies if LiteSpeed should wait and retry the read or write operation on failure. You can define retry options using the following parameters:

• DISK_RETRY_COUNT—Specifies the number of times that a specific operation will be retried on failure. The default is 4 retries, the maximum allowed setting is 1000.
• DISK_RETRY_WAIT—Specifies the number of seconds to wait immediately following a failure before retrying. The default is 15 seconds, the maximum allowed setting is 300.

NOTE: This functionality is only available for disk and cloud operations.

For more information, see Network Resilience.

Creates a log file. This argument accepts one of the following values:

• 0—Logging off.

• 1 or any odd value—Logging on. Log file is removed on success.

• 2 or any even value—Logging on.

The default output directory is C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Quest Software\LiteSpeed\SQL Server\Logs (or C:\ProgramData\Quest Software\LiteSpeed\SQL Server\Logs) (or C:\ProgramData\Quest Software\LiteSpeed\SQL Server\Logs). To log to a different directory run this utility with the following argument: --trace logpath = "path".

For more information, see Configure Logging in LiteSpeed.

If you need to use the advanced tracing options, use the trace parameter instead.

Produces a backup that is compatible for use with LiteSpeed Engine for SQL Server. The parameter can be used whenever a new backup file is created and should only be set when backups are needed for cross-compatibility between the products. This switch will force modifications to internal settings such as the thread count, striping model, and encryption levels. In some cases, performance may be degraded. The parameter is ignored when appending to a backup file created without the switch.

This argument accepts one of the following values:

• 0—False (default)
• 1—True

Specifies the largest unit of transfer in bytes to be used between SQL Server and LiteSpeed. The possible values are multiples of 65536 bytes (64 KB) ranging up to 4,194,304 bytes (4 MB). The default is 1048576 (1 MB).

The argument is similar to the SQL Native Backup commands: backup database xxx to disk = 'NUL' or backup log xxx to disk = 'NUL'. When the backup is completed, it is not written to disk.

NOTES:

• You need to supply a filename (-F). The MSDB history tables are updated with the filename specified, but the file will not get created and no IO is performed.
• If compression or encryption parameters are specified, then the data will get compressed or encrypted before being thrown away.

Generates a map file during a backup for Object Level Recovery. This argument accepts one of the following values:

• 0—False (default)
• 1—True

Re-initializes (overwrites and replaces) the target backup files. Equivalent to WITH INIT in native SQL Server backups. For TSM backups, this will create the TSM object and version the backup based on the retention policy. The argument accept the values:

• 0 (appends the backup to an existing backup file)
• 1 (overwrite the existing target backup file)

Type: Integer

Specifies the priority of the LiteSpeed process compared to other processes running on the same server. This argument accepts one of the following values:

• 0—Normal (Default)

• 1—AboveNormal

• 2—High

Specifies a number of days to retain the backup. LiteSpeed will not overwrite this file for this number of days. 

Specifies the instance of Microsoft SQL Server to connect to. This argument accepts one of the following values:

• server_name
• server_name\instance_name

If no server is specified, the LiteSpeed command-line utility will connect to the default instance of SQL Server on the local computer.

Displays the syntax summary of the LiteSpeed command-line utility.

Location and name of the source backup/restore file device(s). You can also specify a UNC path.

For TSM backups and TSM archives, this argument accepts the following formats:

• tsmbkp:<filespace>\<high>\<low>
• tsmarc:<filespace>\<high>\<low>

For more information, see Examples.

Tip: Multiple -E parameters are used for stripe files (Example 2). Converting multiple files to a single file is accomplished by running the commands more than once (Example 3).

Specifies the particular backup to use when recasting, restoring, extracting or reading from files with multiple appended backups. A backup file can contain multiple backups. Each time you append a new backup, a sequential number is assigned to this backup within the backup file. You can run xp_restore_headeronly to query the files contained within the backup set given by backup_file_name.

Password/key used to decrypt backup. Passwords are case-sensitive.

Type: Integer

Initializes the media on the device. This argument only applies to tape backups. This argument accepts one of the following values:

• 0—Do not format (default)

• 1—Write new header

• 2—Long erase / write new header

• 3—Low level controller format / write new header

NOTE: Any successful format operation (values 1, 2, and 3; not all are available to all drive types) lays down a LiteSpeed tape header that will identify this tape as containing LiteSpeed backups. Using @init=1 (or -I in the command line) will not lay down a tape header.

Type: Integer

Applies only to backing up and restoring tape. This argument accepts one of the following values:

• 0—Leave the tape unwound (default)

• 1—Rewind the tape after writing/reading

Type: Integer

Applies to tape backups and restores. This argument accepts one of the following values:

• 0—Keep tape loaded (default)

• 1—Unload and eject tape from the drive after operation

Specifies a temporary directory for use with Object Level Recovery. Use this argument when the default Windows temp directory does not have enough free disk space for the restore process.

Location and name of the target backup/restore file device(s). You can supply multiple instances of this argument.

Examples:

UNC Path: \\servername\share\path\filename

Local path: c:\filedirectory\filename 

NOTE: You cannot use the same location for the source and target files if you want to recast files with the same names.

Specifies the maximum CPU usage allowed. The argument accepts an integer value between 1 and 100. The default value is 100. This is the percentage of the total amount of CPU usage (across all enabled processors) available.

TIP: Before you start tuning the CPU Throttle or Affinity parameters to adjust backup performance, try limiting the number of threads. If you decide to use an affinity value other than default, it is recommended that you limit the threading as well. You may also want to consider using Adaptive Compression to maintain backup performance. For more information, see Adaptive Compression.

Specifies the TSM server LiteSpeed connects to during backups and restores. Not required, if specified in the options file or if backing up with the Passwordaccess Generate option.

Specifies the TSM client owner user password. Not required, if specified in the options file or if backing up with the Passwordaccess Generate option.

DSMI_DIR path if needed.

DSMI_LOG path.

Defines the TSM filespace, high level and low level. This argument accepts the following format:

tsm_filespace\tsm_high_level\tsm_low_level

where:

• tsm_filespace - is the logical space on the TSM server that contains a group of files. It can be the drive label name or UNC name.

• tsm_high_level - specifies the directory path in which the file belongs.

• tsm_low_level - specifies the actual name of the file.

NOTE: You may only store one item at the location specified by this argument. It is not possible to append an object to this location. You can use the -I command-line argument or @init to back up to a non-unique location.

Log name.

Specifies the TSM management class. If not specified, LiteSpeed uses the default management class.