Seeing that the recovery model is set to simple and msdn states that the simple recovery model does not support point-in-time recovery - Does this mean that I won't be able to use my transaction log backups to restore the database in a disaster to an hour before it happened?
Even taking a transaction log backup is not supported for databases using the SIMPLE recovery model. This is a restriction of the database engine based on how this recovery model works, and the recovery features it doesn't support, as you mentioned.
A transaction log backup maintenance plan task automatically skips databases in SIMPLE recovery to avoid causing errors.
Which backup should be done first, the database backup or the transaction log backups? Articles that I'm busy reading say I should do the database backup first and then the transaction log backup else I will get maintenance plan errors, but I'm currently first backing up my transaction logs and then data databases and I'm not getting any errors.
For the reasons I mentioned above, it won't matter for databases using SIMPLE recovery, as they will be skipped by the transaction log backup task.
For databases in the other two recovery models, a full backup must exist before you start taking transaction log backups (just the first time), or you will get an error -- this is probably what the articles refer to.
Point-in-time recovery ability is normally driven by business need -- in other words, you determine how critical the data is and how much you can afford to lose, then set the appropriate recovery model to meet those needs, and finally create a backup solution.
Even though SIMPLE recovery does not support point-in-time recovery, if an hour of data loss is okay, perhaps a differential backup solution could work for you. (There are far too many variables that go into developing this kind of solution to give you a complete picture with what was provided in the question.)
No, sorry. Once the log chain was broken the following differential cannot be restored because there are at least a few transactions that would be lost. You may feel that those 'unimportant' changes could just be ignored. But SQL Server insists on a complete restore chain.
Though there are certainly some companies that will try to reconstitute a database for you. Not for free, of course.
Best Answer
Typically server backup programs will coordinate with SQL Server through the Windows Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) to ensure that SQL Server places the database files in a consistent state before volume snapshots are taken. At a minimum backup programs should create backups that are consistent on a per-volume basis.
However, even in an enterprise environment where you have trusted professionals performing server backups using a configuration you can verify, very few DBAs would actually rely on server backups. Remember backups alone are irrelevant. Restores are what you actually care about.
So how are you going to perform a restore if you rely on server backups? Not easily, that's for sure.
So take backups. Then download them regularly from your hoster, or upload them to a cloud storage provider, eg: