LiteSpeed for SQL Server 8.9.8 - Security and Compliance Guide

Specifies the directory where to search for the backup file.

Note: AlterDIr replaced SDSearchAlternateBackupDirectory in LiteSpeed 8.6. Support for the old SDSearchAlternateBackupDirectory parameter will be gradually phased out.

Appends data to an existing full backup file.

Specifies a directory for the backup file.

Checks if the expected full backup exists when backing up to separate files and returns a failure message if it is not found. If the full backup file does not exist, it performs a full backup. If the full backup file does exist, the decision to perform a new full or a differential backup will depend on other conditions specified.

Specifies the last differential backup size to last full backup size ratio. When exceeding the specified ratio LiteSpeed performs a full backup.

This argument accepts one of the following formats:

• ".4"
• "40%"

Specifies the minimum number of days since last full backup required to perform full backup. The default value is 14.

Specifies the minimum amount of database changes required for the full backup.

This argument accepts one of the following formats:

• ".4"
• "40%"

Forces differential backup.

Forces full backup.

This option causes LiteSpeed to issue a full backup, if one of the following problems is discovered in the current backup set:

• The full backup is missing.
• A differential backup is missing from the backup set (excludes backups automatically removed after the specified retention period).
• LSN verification fails in the backup set.
• Verify operation fails on full or differential backup.
• Differential backup fails for reasons other than out-of-disk .

NOTE: If a problem is detected and a full backup is created through escalation, an error will be returned.

This argument accepts one of the following values:

• 0—False (default)
• 1—True

Specifies a directory for a mirror backup. You can supply multiple instances of this argument.

Specifies days of the week when a full backup is never performed. This argument accepts one of the following formats:

• 3—on Tuesday
• "tu"—on Tuesday
• "5-7"—from Thursday to Saturday
• "m, w, su"—on Monday, Wednesday, and Sunday

Performs a restore verification on the backup file just created (if backup was successful). This argument accepts one of the following values:

• Last—Verifies last backup performed (can be either a full or differential)
• Full, Last—Verifies the last full backup and last differential is available
• All—Verifies last full backup and all differentials since

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.

For more information, see Configure LiteSpeed Defaults.

Specifies a file or directory (and all nested files and directories) to attach with this backup operation. You can supply multiple instances of this argument..

Type: Varchar

Specifies a description to store with the backup.

This argument accepts variables. For more information, see LiteSpeed Variables.

Type: Varchar

Specifies the name of the backup set.

This argument accepts variables. For more information, see LiteSpeed Variables.

Specifies the number of SQL Server buffers available for a LiteSpeed operation. The default value is set by SQL Server.

NOTE: LiteSpeed defaults typically result in the best performance. You should only modify advanced options after careful planning and testing.

Type: String

Appends a user comment to the backup.

This argument accepts variables. For more information, see LiteSpeed Variables.

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.

Name of database to be backed up or restored.

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 the fast compression file extension. This argument accepts one of the following formats:

• bak - the default for new items.
• bkp - for an existing item that does not have an extension defined.

Specifies a logical database file used for file or filegroup backups. You can supply multiple instances of this argument.

Specifies a database filegroup to include in the backup or restore. You can supply multiple instances of this argument.

A filegroup backup is a single backup of all files in the filegroup and is equivalent to explicitly listing all files in the filegroup when creating the backup. Files in a filegroup backup can be restored individually or as a group.

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.

Type: Varchar

Value used to generate the encryption key for the encryption algorithm. If you do not supply encryption key, then the program will not encrypt the backup. If you use the wrong encryption key, the restore will fail.

Caution: When encrypting data, take care not to lose the encryption key; a backup cannot be restored or recovered without the original encryption key.

Example of key: 'Mypassword'

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.

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).

Mirrors the backup file (copies the backup to multiple locations). If you back up the primary to a set of striped files, all mirrored backups must match the primary in the number of stripes in each mirror.

This argument accepts variables. For more information, see LiteSpeed Variables.

Produces a backup that includes several types of databases. Types can include: all, system, user, or selected databases.

This argument accepts one of the following values:

• All - Backup all system and user databases.
• System - Backup only system databases.
• User - Backup only user databases.
• Selected - Backup specifically selected databases.

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)

Specifies the user password. Passwords are case-sensitive. Required if the connection type is not a trusted connection.

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 partial backup, which includes the primary filegroup and any read-write secondary filegroups.

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

Displays backups that are to be removed (delete candidates) or kept according to the specified conditions and SmartCleanup logic. SmartCleanup does not remove any backups, if this parameter is specified.

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.

Type: Integer

Determines the number of threads used for the backup or restore. You will achieve the best results by specifying multiple threads, but the exact value depends on several factors including: processors available, affinity setting, compression level, encryption settings, IO device speed, and SQL Server responsiveness. The default is n-1 threads, where n is the number of processors.

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 user login ID. Required if the connection type is not a trusted connection.

Login IDs are case-sensitive.

Specifies strings that will be passed directly to SQL Server in the backup/restore SQL.  

Some of the accepted parameters are the following:

• CHECKSUM—Causes checksums to be verified when a LiteSpeed backup is created.
  NOTE: When you restore a backup containing checksum, it is automatically checked. If you do not want to check the checksums during a restore, supply 'NO_CHECKSUM' .
• CONTINUE_AFTER_ERROR—Causes the backup be executed despite encountering an invalid backup checksum.
• STATS—Displays a message each time a percentage of the activity completes. The default is 10%.

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.

Specifies the TSM configuration file.

Specifies how long to wait for a TSM device in the advent that a MAX TAPE MOUNTS EXCEEDED error is received from TSM at the start of the backup. This parameter ensures that the TSM device is acquired and dedicated to this backup before the backup actually begins. If this parameter is not set or passed in then no timeout is used and instead the backup will then fail immediately if the MAX TAPE MOUNTS EXCEEDED is received from TSM.

DSMI_DIR path if needed.

DSMI_LOG path.

Specifies the TSM file space, the logical space on the TSM server. It can be the drive label name or UNC name. You can supply multiple instances of this argument.

NOTE: IBM recommends that an application client should select a unique file space; it is recommended that LiteSpeed users follow this practice with a specific file space reserved for LiteSpeed backups.

Log name.

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

The TSM username ID.

The @AWSUseServerSideEncryption argument enables the encryption of data stored at rest in Amazon S3. This argument accepts one of the following values:

• 0—Do not use Server Side Encryption
• 1—Use Server Side Encryption

Type: Varchar

The @AzureBlobType argument specifies the types of blobs that can be stored in the Microsoft Azure cloud storage. This argument accepts one of the following values: "Block", "Page".

Type: Varchar

The @CloudAccessKey argument specifies the name of the unique Cloud Web Service alphanumeric access key that identifies each user. The selections include Amazon Access Key, Azure Account Name, Google e-mail styled account, S3 Compatible Storage Access Key.

Type: Varchar

The @CloudAccessKeyEnc argument specifies the name of the encrypted unique Cloud Web Service alphanumeric access key that identifies each user.

This parameter enables automatic file striping for LiteSpeed cloud backups.

This parameter contains the stripe size in GBs. LiteSpeed logic uses the database size to make a decision about the number of stripes needed for LiteSpeed cloud backups. For example, if you have a database with a size of 200GB and set @CloudAutoStripingThreshold = 50, then LiteSpeed uses 200/50 = 4 stripes.

Type: Varchar

The @CloudBucketName argument specifies the name of the container for cloud objects. Bucket names must be at least 3 and no more than 63 characters long. The selections are Amazon Bucket Name, Azure Container Name, Google Bucket Name, Google Bucket Name requirements are described at https://cloud.google.com/storage/docs/naming, S3 Compatible Storage Bucket Name,

The @CloudGovRegion argument enables a special restricted region for the US Government use in Amazon S3 and Azure Clouds. This argument accepts one of the following values:

• 0—Do not use government cloud (default)
• 1—Use government cloud

Type: Varchar

The @CloudRegionName argument specifies the name of the Cloud Web Service region to use for a bucket. Example values are but not limited to: us-east-1, us-east-2, us-west-1, us-west-2, ca-central-1, eu-central-1, eu-west-1, eu-west-2, ap-south-1, ap-southeast-1, ap-southeast-2, ap-northeast-1, ap-northeast-2, sa-east-1, N'Germany' and N'China'.

Type: Varchar

The @CloudSecretKey argument specifies the name of the Cloud Web Service secret key that is assigned when you initially get a Cloud account.

Type: Varchar

The @CloudSecretKeyEnc argument specifies the name of the encrypted Cloud Web Service secret key that is assigned when you initially get a Cloud account.

Type: Varchar

The @CloudStorageClass argument specifies a range of storage classes established for different use cases including:

For Amazon S3:

• Standard: Standard storage - for general-purpose storage of frequently accessed data.
• Standard-IA: Standard Infrequent Access - for long-lived, but less frequently accessed data.

• RRS: Reduced Redundancy Storage - for non-critical data considering lower level of redundancy rather than Standard storage.

For Google Storage:

• Multi_regional - for frequently accessed data around the world as per serving website content, streaming videos, or gaming and mobile applications.
• Regional - for frequently accessed data in the same region as your Google Cloud DataProc or the Google Compute Engine instances that use it, as per data analytics.
• Nearline - for infrequently accessed data (data you expect to access no more than once per month).
• Coldline - for infrequently accessed data (data you expect to access no more than once per year).

Type: Varchar

The @CloudVendor argument specifies the name of the cloud service provider. The argument accepts one of the following values: "AmazonS3", "AzureBlob", "GoogleStorage" or "S3Compatible".

Type: Varchar

The @CloudEndpoint argument specifies the endpoint for S3 Compatible Storage and custom endpoint for Amazon S3 service (in case of VPC). Format: servername:port .Example values: "servername", "servername:port", "ip:port", "10.0.0.200:9021".

Type: Boolean

The @CloudAcceptAllCertificates argument instructs LiteSpeed accept self-signed certificates for S3 Compatible Storage. This argument accepts one of the following values:

• 0—Accept verified certificates only (default)
• 1—Accept self-signed certificates

Note: Delete backups is not supported in Maintenance Plans with this option.

DEPRECATED LiteSpeed 8.8: Was used to store for the Google Cloud Storage project ID; the project ID is now obtained from login. This parameter is retained for compatibility with old backup/restore scripts.

The @UseSSL argument specifies that the connection uses SSL security. This argument accepts one of the following values:

• 0—Do not use SSL
• 1—Use SSL (default)

Type: Varchar

The @ProxyHost argument is optional and specifies the name of the proxy host name that is running the proxy server.

Type: Varchar

The @ProxyLogin argument is optional and specifies the proxy server login credential.

Type: Varchar

The @ProxyPassword argument is optional and specifies the proxy server password credential.

Type: Varchar

The @ProxyPasswordEnc argument is optional and specifies the encrypted proxy server password credential.

The @ProxyPort argument is optional and contains the port number of the proxy server. The TCP/IP port values can be 1-65535.