Did I back that file up ?
As part of some diagnostics I was wishing to check if a particular file had been locked by a backup process whilst I was trying to copy it.
So I put a request into the DataCentre for a list of files backed up and time when they were backed up, seems reasonable to me ? However the response was somewhat strange, apparently I can only find out if a file was backed up if I ask to have it restored, there is no facility ( so I'm told ) to produce a list of backed up files.
It's good to know that in a recovery situation I won't know if that critical database backup was taken to tape until I ask to have it restored!
On a more practical point the reality of restoring a production system from a previous backup is highly unlikely, in fact it's never happened to me, mainly because I usually work with log shipped servers and most of the systems I support are 7 x 24 or close to whereby going back in time would be a logistical nightmare.
My personal view on Production SQL Backups is not to stream to Tape and to ship the logs/backups to at least two other locations, with three copies in three locations I see no reason to ever invoke a tape backup strategy, notwithstanding the classic " will it actually restore " and/or " was it actually backed up " ( see original reason for post ).
I'll not go into the problems with a database where it took over 24 hours to backup the database to Tape, even a diff took best part of 18 hours - totally the wrong solution!