Bug in Database Maintenance Plans Enterprise Manager and MSDE v SQL

I have seen this "bug" many times personally, but cannot seem to find any
posting on the Internet about it. I have many customers using MSDE
The bug is with the Database Maintenance Plans of Microsoft SQL Enterprise
Manager when connecting to MSDE.
Yes, yes, I realize that MSDE (Microsoft SQL Desktop Edition) does NOT
include licence for Enterprize Manager (EM)... but any technician who does
have a licenced copy of SQL (Standard, Enterprize etc) CAL (Client Access
Licence) does have Enterprize Manager and can connect and manage MSDE and
SQL engines/servers equally well.
Consider
http://support.microsoft.com/default...22&Product=sql
Here we see substantiation that one "can" use EM and Maintenance Plans on
MSDE, albeit that you had better be the latest Service Pack since the
sqlmaint feature was overlooked in the original release to market.
The bug I am reporting is with the "Remove after X Weeks/Days" option for
Database Backup, Transaction Backup (and Log text files). This is important
because unless you can also choose to do so, one will end up filling the
hard disk with far too many SQL dumps.
If connected to an SQL server... the option works fine. If connected to an
MSDE, the option fails to provie the drop-down for days/weeks and the
resulting job created has bugs in the command line options of the job step
which one must then go and manually tweak to be correct (never report a bug
without a workaround eh? ;-P)
John D. Sullivan
ABELSoft Corporation
(email address munged)
This is not just an MSDE problem. We have had problems with out Enterprise
version not deleting backups. Never resolved it. Wrote scripts to delete
files.
Bob
SuccessWare Software
"John D. Sullivan" <noone@.nothing.com> wrote in message
news:uGWJDreaEHA.3716@.TK2MSFTNGP11.phx.gbl...
> I have seen this "bug" many times personally, but cannot seem to find any
> posting on the Internet about it. I have many customers using MSDE
> The bug is with the Database Maintenance Plans of Microsoft SQL Enterprise
> Manager when connecting to MSDE.
> Yes, yes, I realize that MSDE (Microsoft SQL Desktop Edition) does NOT
> include licence for Enterprize Manager (EM)... but any technician who does
> have a licenced copy of SQL (Standard, Enterprize etc) CAL (Client Access
> Licence) does have Enterprize Manager and can connect and manage MSDE and
> SQL engines/servers equally well.
> Consider
> http://support.microsoft.com/default...22&Product=sql
> Here we see substantiation that one "can" use EM and Maintenance Plans on
> MSDE, albeit that you had better be the latest Service Pack since the
> sqlmaint feature was overlooked in the original release to market.
> The bug I am reporting is with the "Remove after X Weeks/Days" option for
> Database Backup, Transaction Backup (and Log text files). This is
important
> because unless you can also choose to do so, one will end up filling the
> hard disk with far too many SQL dumps.
> If connected to an SQL server... the option works fine. If connected to
an
> MSDE, the option fails to provie the drop-down for days/weeks and the
> resulting job created has bugs in the command line options of the job step
> which one must then go and manually tweak to be correct (never report a
bug
> without a workaround eh? ;-P)
> John D. Sullivan
> ABELSoft Corporation
> (email address munged)
>
|||Excellent information that is very relevant. Thank you Mark. It is very
useful to know that the sqlmaint.exe tool fails to delete the backups on 9x
platform. While it is true that SQL 7 has no Database Maintenance Plan
branch under Management in the Enterprise Manager and therefore connecting
to an SQL 2k it is not possible to edit or delete a "plan" but only the
Job/steps... the problem I am citing is a bit different.
What I mean to say is that when creating a new Database Maintenance Plan
using the GUI Enterprise Manager (2000) that takes one through a multi-step
"wizard", it is possible to "check box" that you wish to "Remove files older
than" but the boxes for quantity and units (e.g. 4, Weeks) are fine if
manageing an SQL 2000 edition other than MSDE but when MSDE 2000 (all
service packs) is the engine/server the GUI of the Maintenance Plan Wizard
shows blanks for the qty/units of days/weeks to remove old files.
Workaround: if you go ahead and checkbox to remove old files, manually fill
in a number for qty (you cannot fill in units) and continue through the
wizard it WILL create the Job/step(s)... however the job step that EXECUTEs
xp_sqlmaint (notice this is the extended stored procedure equivalent of
command prompt sqlmaint.exe) will have slight syntax errors in the argument
list. The resulting Job fails to execute. Obviously the -DelBkUps switch
will not have the correct <time value> after it... if you filled in 77 it
will say 77 but has no WEEKS or DAYS or what have you. One has to edit the
job step and manually tweak the command line arguments until they are
correct, then it will work.
By the way, I find viewing the results of job and job steps pretty much
useless. You might see an error number you can lookup. One ends up copying
the entire command and pasting and running it as a query to find out exactly
where/why it is failing. Instead, I find it very useful to check the option
in the Maintenance Plan to write report to a text file..because the error
message(s) in there are far more detailed and useful.
John D. Sullivan
ABELSoft Corporation
"Mark Allison" <marka@.no.tinned.meat.mvps.org> wrote in message
news:OAZ539laEHA.2908@.TK2MSFTNGP10.phx.gbl...[vbcol=seagreen]
> John,
> Yep, this is a bug. Have a look at these articles:
> BUG: Sqlmaint Does Not Delete Expired Backup Files on Windows 95, 98 or
> ME Computers
> http://support.microsoft.com/?id=278667
> BUG: Cannot Edit or Delete Database Maintenance Plan on MSDE Installation
> http://support.microsoft.com/?id=247879
> FIX: SQLMaint.exe Sets Database Status Incorrectly
> http://support.microsoft.com/?id=276234
>
> --
> Mark Allison, SQL Server MVP
> http://www.markallison.co.uk
> Looking for a SQL Server replication book?
> http://www.nwsu.com/0974973602.html
>
> John D. Sullivan wrote:
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