A full backup is needed in the event that the system experiences a hardware failure or a data corruption event. In addition, if a transaction log backup is never done, the database is never purged of the transaction log data, which can lead to slow performance and will gradually use more disk space.

NOTE: The following only applies to a full installation of SQL Server Management Studio. SQL Server Management Studio Express does not include some features that are mentioned below. Instructions:

1. On the database server, open SQL Server Management Studio.
2. Login to the database server with an SA equivalent account.
3. Under the database server name, expand the Databases folder.
4. Right-click the Track-It! database and then click Properties.
5. Select the Options page and make sure the Recovery Model is set to "Full". NOTE: You may choose the "Simple" recovery model, however, you will not be able to setup scheduled backups of the Transaction log as instructed below.
6. Click Ok if any changes had been made.
7. Next, under the database server name expand the Management folder.
8. Right-click Maintenance Plans and then select Maintenance Plan Wizard. NOTE: If you receive an error in regards to "Agent XPs", please run the following SQL command in a new query window to enable Agent XPs: sp_configure 'show advanced options', 1; GO RECONFIGURE; GO sp_configure 'Agent XPs', 1; GO RECONFIGURE GO
9. When the SQL Server Maintenance Plan Wizard appears, click Next.
10. Enter a name for the plan and description if desired (i.e. Track-It! DB Backups).
11. At the bottom, enable the 'Separate schedules for each task' option (unless the database is running in Simple recovery mode and you will only be doing a full backup).
12. Enable the Back Up Database (Full) and Back Up Database (Transaction Log) options and then click Next (you may also want to enable the 'Back Up Database (Differential)' option as well, but will introduce another schedule that must be configured, which isn't covered below).
13. On the 'Select Maintenance Tasks Order' window click Next again.
14. Select the database that you would like to backup and, if desired, specify a location other than the default path for where the backup will be saved.
15. At the bottom, click the Change button.
16. Select the frequency that you would like the full backup to run. For example, set it to run once per week or once per day.
17. Once the schedule has been set, click OK.
18. Click Next to go to the next task (Transaction Log backup).
19. Once again, select the database that you would like to backup and, if desired, specify a location other than the default path for where the transaction log backup will be saved. NOTE: Only databases running in Full recovery mode will appear in the list.
20. At the bottom, click the Change button.
21. Select the frequency that you would like the transaction log backup to run. For example, set it to run the backup every four hours or more.
22. Once the schedule has been set, click OK.
23. Click Next, select the location where a backup report file will be created and then click Next.
24. Click Finish to complete the wizard.

A maintenance plan has now been created to create a full database backup as well as frequent transaction log backups that can be used to recover the database if needed. Make sure to monitor the jobs to make sure the backups are being created as expected.