VB6 application backup using SQL 2005 suddenly failing

Question

We have a windows server 2003 R2 machine running MSSQL 2005, and our XP workstations all run a VB6 application which calls the SQL backup utility to backup a 700 Mb database. A couple of weeks ago all of the workstations stopped being able to do a backup, when we try to do one the local workstation application appears to hang. We can do a backup directly on the server (to the same backup device name) but it does take about three or four times as long as it used to. SQl and Windows have all the latest patches and updates. Does anyone have any ideas what has gone wrong ?

Answer 1

Couple of issues here...

A couple of weeks ago all of the workstations stopped being able to do a backup, when we try to do one the local workstation application appears to hang.

Does your VB app issue the backup command directly in the button_click handler, or does it defer it to another thread? If it calls BACKUP DATABASE directly, you should change your process. Create a SQL Server Agent job on the server to perform the backup and have your button_click handler start the job instead.

We can do a backup directly on the server (to the same backup device name) but it does take about three or four times as long as it used to.

Has the size of the database increased significantly? Look in the SQL Server ERRORLOG file for indication of I/O errors during the backup -- you could have a fail(ed|ing) disk.