Have you ever done a point in time restore? If not,then consider yourself lucky.

In case you are forced to do a point in time restore in near future,then this new Time line feature in SQL Server 2012 will attract your attention.

I am not a big fan of GUI based restores,but was happy to see Timeline as an added feature to SSMS based restores.

Demo  –

Opened a database which was already created for this demo and navigated to restore using GUI.

You can observe a new button called Timeline,click this new buddy to get the timeline interface

As you can see there are 2 restore options

1. Last backup taken

2. Specific date and time

If you choose Specific date and time,then you can see what all backups have happened and what is your restore requirement.

You can move your mouse over different times to see what is the backup type and plan towards your recovery.

This tool might not be widely used by the DBA’s,however more and more flexible features with in SSMS is a welcome factor.

Thanks for reading.