Hot vs. warm standby

We have neither log shipping nor database mirroring on our system, so the
only way I could experiment with a standby database was to restore a backup
to a new database, using the standby option. Is the database I created a hot
or a warm standby? Can both kinds be used as a read-only data source for
queries or reports?I'd call your implementation a warm standby.
Yes, you can query such a database restored using STANDBY.
As for LS and M:
For LS, you can query the db is you restore using STANDBY, but you have to kick out the users for
each new log restore. Not very practical.
For mirroring, you can create a database snapshot of the mirrored database and query that snapshot.
I do recommend that you evaluate your HS requirements and your scalability requirements separately
and then decide which technology is best suited for each (HA and scalability). It might happen that
the same technology is good for both, but it isn't uncommon to use different technologies for the
two.
--
Tibor Karaszi, SQL Server MVP
http://www.karaszi.com/sqlserver/default.asp
http://sqlblog.com/blogs/tibor_karaszi
"Bev Kaufman" <BevKaufman@.discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:6F37569F-1767-4F58-B0AB-90EBB83620AE@.microsoft.com...
> We have neither log shipping nor database mirroring on our system, so the
> only way I could experiment with a standby database was to restore a backup
> to a new database, using the standby option. Is the database I created a hot
> or a warm standby? Can both kinds be used as a read-only data source for
> queries or reports?
>|||Generally:
They call "Hot standby" when there is automatic failover in the high
availbility system. (Like SQL Server Failover Clustering or Database
Mirroring with High Availibility mode)
"Warm standby" when you can failover manually. (Log Shipping and Database
Mirroring's High Performance and Protection modes etc.)
Attach\detach, backup\restore kind of stuff is called "Cold standby"
Also I wanted to add to Tibor's message that, you'll need Enterprise Edition
of SQL Server 2005 to be able to use Database Snapshot in your environment.
--
Ekrem Ã?nsoy
http://www.ekremonsoy.net , http://ekremonsoy.blogspot.com
MCBDA, MCITP:DBA, MCSD.Net, MCSE, MCBMSP, MCT
"Bev Kaufman" <BevKaufman@.discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:6F37569F-1767-4F58-B0AB-90EBB83620AE@.microsoft.com...
> We have neither log shipping nor database mirroring on our system, so the
> only way I could experiment with a standby database was to restore a
> backup
> to a new database, using the standby option. Is the database I created a
> hot
> or a warm standby? Can both kinds be used as a read-only data source for
> queries or reports?
>