Sql-server – Identify the type of a SQL Server backup

I turned to my copy of SQL Server 2008 Internals and the DMV sys.database_recovery_status was pointed out to find the first LSN of the next log backup. Which going by BOL the column last_log_backup_lsn provides you with:

Log sequence number of the most recent log backup. This is the end LSN of the previous log backup and the starting LSN of the next log backup.
NULL= No log backup exists. The database is offline or the database will not start.

Just to mention as well that Kalen also brings up the point that you will get a NULL value if the database is in SIMPLE recovery mode (autotruncate mode) or if no log backup exist.

But how can I obtain the FirstLSN of the tail log?

Without actually backing up the tail log of a database (don't have an test instance to try this on) you could logically conclude that the value returned in the column mentioned would be the first LSN of the next log backup, in your case the tail.

So executing the following will return the value I believe you are looking for:

SELECT 
   last_log_backup_lsn
FROM 
   sys.database_recovery_status
WHERE 
   databse_id = DB_ID('MyDb')

This DMV is available starting in SQL 2005.

EDIT
Unless you read the BOL link, please note that this DMV will only return values to databases that are online, or opened as BOL references it. If a failure occurs that requires you to take a tail log backup of a database you will not be able to verify this value through the above code unless the database is accessible; which in a failure it probably would not be.

One alternative here is to calculate the size of active transactions in your transaction log by using DBCC LOGINFO. Your logic would look something like this:

CREATE TABLE #vlfs(
   RecoveryUnitID int
  ,  FileID      int
  , FileSize    bigint
  , StartOffset bigint
  , FSeqNo      bigint
  , [Status]    bigint
  , Parity      bigint
  , CreateLSN   numeric(38)
);

DECLARE @MBthreshhold int

SELECT @MBthreshhold = 5 --Enter your threshhold in MB here

INSERT INTO #vlfs
EXEC ('DBCC LOGINFO')

IF (select sum(filesize/1024/1024) 
    from #vlfs
    where [Status] = 2) > @MBthreshhold
BEGIN
    BACKUP LOG [foo] to <<backup location>>
END

Please note there are a lot of caveats here. Your transaction log will never be completely empty and there is always something to backup to it. You can use this to determine at what size point you want to actually run your backup, but this can be a HUGE risk to your Recovery Point Objective (RPO). Your log backups will happen at variable times, meaning you can never guarantee the maximum amount of data loss you will incur in a disaster. This sort of strategy should be pursued with extreme caution.