How to manually back up a MET/TEAM database (SQL Server 2012)

The steps below will guide you thru making a backup of the MET/TEAM database via the Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio 2012 application that can be installed with the MET/TEAM application.

NOTE: If you are using SQL Server version 2008R2 instead of 2012, view this article instead: 

How to manually back up a MET/TEAM database (SQL Server 2008R2)

1. Open SQL Server Management studio on the computer where SQL Server was installed.
   NOTE: You can search for SSMS and then select SQL Server Management Studio
   
2. The settings should be defaulted to your local SQL installation and to use “Windows Authentication”. If necessary contact your IT department for this information. Click Connect.
   
3. When Microsoft Sql Server Management Studio opens, expand to locate your METTEAM database and then right click and select Tasks – Back Up…
   
4. In the “Back Up Database – metteam” dialog, on the ‘General’ page, verify the following:
   1. Database = “metteam” (or name of your database if different)
   2. Backup type = “Full”
      
5. If anything is listed in the "Destination" list, highlight it and select "Remove"
6. Click the “Add” button if necessary to change the name or location for the backup file.
7. In the “Select Backup Destination” window, verify the “File name” radio button is selected and click the ellipse […] button.
   
8. In the “Locate Database Files - ” window, select the folder and enter name of the file.
   1. NOTE: We suggest you include the date at the end in YYYYMMDD format so you can easily sort and view when the backup was created.
9. Use the database backup file (.bak)extension and click OK.
10. Back in the “Select Backup Destination” dialog, verify the “Destination on disk” contains the file you just specified and then click the OK button.
11. Back in the “Back Up Database – metteam” dialog, on the ‘General’ tab, make sure the data selected is still valid.
12. In the top left, click the “Options” page.
    
13.  
14. Select “Overwrite all existing backup sets’ radio button. This will ensure the backup is as small as possible and will NOT delete any data as it may sound.
15. Still in the “Back Up Database – metteam” dialog, click the “Ok” button on the bottom of the page and you will see the Progress indicator on the bottom left start showing the progress in %.
    
16. When the process finishes you will receive a prompt that it was successful, click OK
17. That’s all you have successfully backed up your MET/TEAM database.
18. Step 19 is optional if you want to to also zip up the file. This is recommended if you will be sending the file to Fluke, because it will significantly reduce the size of the file.
19. Step 20 is also optional and it explains how to shrink a database.
20. Compress the backup file with any process you desire, below are steps that should work unless your files are too large for the included windows compression (zip) process.
    1. Navigate to the location where the backup file was saved
    2. Right click on the file and select “Send to” --> “Compressed (zipped) folder"
       
    3. As you can see below the backup has been significantly compressed and is ready to send.
       
21. Steps to shrink a database. (NOTE: The database should be freshly backed up prior to doing the following)
    1. With Microsoft Sql Server Management Studio open, expand to locate your METTEAM database and then right click and select Tasks – Shrink – Database
    2. In the “Shrink Database – metteam” window that opens, you will see the current info, leave then default settings and press “OK”
       
    3. The Progress bar in the lower left will show status and the window will close.
    4. That’s it, you have shrunk your database. You can look at the ‘Properties’ of the metteam database and verify that the log file has shrunk, typically down “1 MB”.