When was the last time your SQL Server database was restored

By: Thomas LaRock   |   Read Comments (4)   |   Related Tips: More > Restore

Problem
Often times we are asked the question "when was the last time my database was restored, and where was it restored from?"  In this tip, we will look at some of the system tables that capture restore history information and how you can query these system tables to answer this question.

Solution
The restore history information is readily available inside the msdb, making the solution as easy as a few lines of T-SQL.

Returning the details

Here is some T-SQL that will return information about the last time a database has been restored. There are two variables, @dbname and @days, that you can configure. The first (@dbname) would be the name of the database you are searching for and would need to be enclosed in single quotation marks. If you leave it NULL than all databases will be returned. The second variable (@days) would be a negative integer (i.e., -7) which represents how many days previously you want to search. So, -7 would translate to returning the previous week's worth of history. If you leave it NULL then the script will default to searching for only the previous thirty days.

DECLARE @dbname sysname, @days int
SET @dbname = NULL --substitute for whatever database name you want
SET @days = -30 --previous number of days, script will default to 30
SELECT
 rsh.destination_database_name AS [Database],
 rsh.user_name AS [Restored By],
 CASE WHEN rsh.restore_type = 'D' THEN 'Database'
  WHEN rsh.restore_type = 'F' THEN 'File'
  WHEN rsh.restore_type = 'G' THEN 'Filegroup'
  WHEN rsh.restore_type = 'I' THEN 'Differential'
  WHEN rsh.restore_type = 'L' THEN 'Log'
  WHEN rsh.restore_type = 'V' THEN 'Verifyonly'
  WHEN rsh.restore_type = 'R' THEN 'Revert'
  ELSE rsh.restore_type 
 END AS [Restore Type],
 rsh.restore_date AS [Restore Started],
 bmf.physical_device_name AS [Restored From], 
 rf.destination_phys_name AS [Restored To]
FROM msdb.dbo.restorehistory rsh
 INNER JOIN msdb.dbo.backupset bs ON rsh.backup_set_id = bs.backup_set_id
 INNER JOIN msdb.dbo.restorefile rf ON rsh.restore_history_id = rf.restore_history_id
 INNER JOIN msdb.dbo.backupmediafamily bmf ON bmf.media_set_id = bs.media_set_id
WHERE rsh.restore_date >= DATEADD(dd, ISNULL(@days, -30), GETDATE()) --want to search for previous days
AND destination_database_name = ISNULL(@dbname, destination_database_name) --if no dbname, then return all
ORDER BY rsh.restore_history_id DESC
GO

The script will return the following result set:

Here is the definition of each of the result set columns.

Next Steps

• Take the above code and execute against your instance, making certain to insert the correct database name and/or number of days.
• Use this as a weekly check to see if any database restores have been done that you are unaware of.
• Take a look at these other history reports for backup and restore:
  • Script to retrieve SQL Server database backup history; last week, most recent and no backups
  • SQL Server Backup History Analysis
• Download the script here

About the author

Thomas is a seasoned IT professional with over a decade of experience. He is a Senior DBA for Confio Software and SQL Server MVP.

View all my tips

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