I use a patch scanner/deployer, Shavlik NetChk, with a SQL 2005 w/SP1
backend.  This is setup on a server 2003 w/SP1 computer with multiple drives
for OS, APP, SQL, LOGS, SWAP.

I run this at odd times, but, would like to also schedule a maintenance plan
to run on a regular basis, and can't really plan on any particular time for
the server to be "quiet".

Should I just setup and schedule a plan, trusting on SQL and VSS to allow
things to work, especially the backups, while in use?

I presume I should schedule one maintenance plan to do everything but the
transaction log, and, another to do the log.

The Books On Line section on this seems WAY overly complicated in this
area...

Thanks.

Bill,

First it would be nice to clarify if the multiple drives are just Logical
drives or is each one a totally separate physical drive array? If its just
logical drives all on one physical drive array you don't gain any
performance benefits from that at all. Next your title suggests backups but
your message suggests you may actually be talking about more than just
backups. The maintenance plan will allow you to do Backups, Integrity
Checks, Reindexing and more. Running backups when others are using the
database are not a problem but you don't want to schedule backups at the
same time as DBCC's or Reindexing. While it will work they are counter
productive if run together. The only part you want to be careful of is
running the reindexing (optimizations) during times when users need to
access those particular tables. The default is to run in an off line mode
meaning that the table will be unavailable while it is having it's indexes
rebuilt. There is an On-line option in 2005 if that is an issue.

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