When DNN 5.0.0 was released and announced as critical update, I made a backup of the database and installed the new upgrade. It was the first time I updraded since I installed 4.2.something. The upgrade failed and I had to roll back my database to the backup point. Then I discovered that I could backup my database but not restore it.

I rebuilt my website on my home PC (a Windows 7 Ultimate) with the help of Google's page cache. I kept it there because I had no satisfactory solution from my host. I also noticed that Khmer localization worked on the website when I hosted it, but not on my host's server, even with all the latest updates of dotnet and asp. Windows 2003 does not recognize km-KH as a culture and ASP seems to query the operating system for that. So I had two problems to solve before I could move my site to a hosted solution. I needed to find an affordable Windows 2008 host serrver and I needed to check what I could achieve with the database.

While I was hosting the site myself, I learned of course a lot about managing SQL server, and I had sa access to test any feature that seemed interesting. I hadn't done any backup in months, and when I checked, I had a transaction log of 36 GB. Backing up should have shrunk the log but it didn't. Power outages are common in Cambodia, and one such outage could have left a transaction open ore something.

Anyway, I found the correct procedure to solve this: I detach the database, I rename the transaction log (or delete it) and I reattach the database, removing explicitely the transaction log from the files to be attached. MSSQL then creates a new transaction log.

This is of course very nice and useful knowledge if you control the computer that hosts the SQL server. But on a hosted solution, I have no access over the DATA and Backup folders. I even cannot check file sizes of logs and baks.

The experience has taught me one thing: I should have a working copy daily updated on my computer, but that means that I must mirror or replicate my database. That is one of the first things I will test out when I have access to the new SQL server. I've been reading about replication, but the replication feature seems more complicated than I realy need. I am now going to research the mirroring option, but I will need a test situation to find out the best solution.

The question is: can anybody give me some advice about this issue? Here in Cambodia, I feel like the one-eyed in the land of the blind. There is noone I can ask and I would like to move the complete site by next weekend.

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The one-eyed in the land of the blind.

I did make backups. When the site was still hosted, I made a backup every week. But I never needed to restore until the failed upgrade of DNN. I had made a special full backup for that.

When I hosted the site myself, I was a bit wary of the SQL backup and relied on a regular harddisk backup with Acronis until I had the time to research SQL backup further. This never became a priority - until now. Of course a hard disk backup does not truncate the transaction log. But as I said, I learned a lot and since last week, I start to feel a little confidence in SQL backups (or should I say: in myself performing SQL backups) Even so, I still have a hard disk mirror file of my latest website configuration besides my twice daily incremental SQL backup.

My trust in SQL backup may be back, my trust in web/db hosts isn't. They failed to help me out the first time round in spite of my weekly backups. I prefer to be in control and backup/restore doesn't provide me that control, it seems.

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The one-eyed in the land of the blind.