Hello --
We are running a SQL Server 2008R2 64-bit database system on a Windows 2012 R2 64-bit Standard system. I have noticed in recent weeks that our differential backups periodically are taking longer than expected to complete. The usual amount of time is about
one hour, but on several occasions, it has taken upwards to five hours. The nights when the job takes longer to complete are on Friday.
I did some checking online, and one possible reason for this issue is my scheduling the reindexing of the database on the morning of the Differential backup. For example, this past Friday the reindexing occurred at 1:00 AM with the Differential running at 10:00 PM that night.
The article that I read suggested the reindexing, which takes several minutes, if that, to complete, should be scheduled to run just before the Full backup job. I wanted to know what other people thought of that approach before I implemented it on our system.
Thanks.