January 17th, 2006

New features

• Pro and standard editions split.
• Remote back up and restore (Pro only).
• 256-bit encryption (Pro only; standard version still has 128-bit encryption).
• Support to SQL Server 2005.
• Improved compression algorithm.
• Back up file/filegroup.
• Schedule Backup Wizard (can select multiple databases to script in one go).
• New UI.
• Log Shipping Wizard.
• Backup and restore history data will be saved in the msdb table instead (as per native SQL Server) as opposed to in a file on disk. This makes it possible to get backup/restore history data from remote servers. The new Activity history grid will display the last few backups and restores, with SQB backups/restores highlighted and includes statistics of the compression achieved and the speed.
• You can determine the age of old backups, and choose when they should be deleted (before or after running the next backup) in hours as well as days.
• You can set to delete SQL Backup log files (stored on disk), older than a certain age.
• Extended stored procedure can now return last SQB error code and last SQL error code.
• Unicode outputs ok in extended stored procedure. This means if you run remotely to a Chinese SQL Server, for example, all outputs in Chinese will be displayed correctly on an English OS if the necessary fonts are installed.
• Can be set to send an email only when there's an error.
• Can script to back up multiple databases using, for example, BACKUP DATABASES [*] or BACKUP DATABASES [a, b, c] (similarly for log backups, BACKUP LOGS [*]).
• New keyword EXCLUDE (so you can say, for example, back up all databases except these ones).
• New keyword THREADS to automatically back up to a given number of files, so that the user does not need to name every file in a split backup e.g. BACKUP DATABASE pubs TO DISK = [<AUTO>] WITH THREADS = 2.
• New Job Failures tab, to see scheduled jobs which have caused an error.
• Facility to highlight databases which have not been backed up within a specified amount of time – backup alerts.
• Removed Tools dialog (MD5# and verify files).
• Scripts are displayed with syntax highlighters.
• A reset button to go back to the original file name format.
• Improved support for usage of tags in backup file names.
• Improved extended stored procedure feedback.
• Added management dialog for extended stored procedure rights.
• Added display of server properties.
• Added support for Unicode text.