How to create a database snapshot in SQL Server 2008 R2

Question

I used the below command to create a database snapshot in SQL Server 2008 R2:

  CREATE DATABASE "dbss" ON  (
  NAME = "os-file-name",
  FILENAME = 'path')
  AS SNAPSHOT OF "dbName";
  GO

I got this error:

Database Snapshot is not supported on Standard Edition (64-bit).

Does anyone knows how can I create a database snapshot in SQL Server 2008 R2?

Answer 1

Database Snapshot is a feature of the Enterprise Edition and the 2008 Developer Edition.

Besides that there is only little use of Snapshots for a "common user". Most things can be done with a backup too.

Main purpose for snapshots are expensive queries on rapidly changing data. If you got a huge database and need to execute a query for a report that takes some time there is the danger that data may change while the query / procedure fetches data for the report. In this case you need snapshots. There you can query all your data without having problems with changing data.