Archive Database Access

Validate or selectively recover data from a database dump (an “archive”) by making the dump appear as if it is a traditional, read-only database (an "archive database")

Unlike a traditional database, an archive database uses the actual database dump as its main disk storage device, with a minimum amount of traditional storage to represent new or modified pages that result from the recovery of the database dump. A database dump already contains the images of many (if not most) of the database pages, therefore, an archive database can be loaded without having to use Backup Server to transfer pages from the archive to traditional database storage. Consequently, the load is significantly faster than a traditional database.

Archive database access enables a variety of operations to be performed directly on a database dump.

An archive database does not have to be a complete copy of the original database. Depending on the optimization used when dumping the database using sp_dumpoptimize, an archive database may be fully populated (every page in the database is in the database dump), or partially populated (only allocated pages are stored in the database dump).

Because the database dump is presented as a read-only database, a database administrator can query it using familiar tools and techniques such as:

In addition, transaction logs can be loaded into an archive database, thereby providing assurance that the same load sequence can be applied when performing a restore operation.