ApexSQL Recover release notes

Enhancements:

• SQL Server 2019 support

Fixes:

• “Arithmetic overflow error” occurs when auditing database in a simple recovery model in specific case

Changes:

• Software Transaction Agreement is added as a new step in the installation wizard and updated in accordance with https://www.quest.com/legal/sta.aspx

Enhancements:

• The Primary Key column value is now included in the operation details pane for each operation
• The application now automatically checks validity of the selected data sources
• 24h format can now be used in the custom filter when Windows regional format settings imply 24-hour format
• Column order can now be changed in grid using drag-and-drop
• Informational message added that TDE encrypted databases cannot be audited
• Information message added that SQL Server instances hosted on Linux OS cannot be audited

Fixes:

• Aborted transactions are not audited
• Field value grid filter does not affect audited result when applied
• All conditions aside from the first one in the list are not applied in the field values filter if multiple conditions are defined
• The application doesn't automatically connect to the audited database when undo/redo script is connected
• The Find next option does not cycle through the results
• “Failed to load project” error is encountered when application is restarted with “start as admin”
• Default value for the custom filter is not set to current day
• The Ctrl+A shortcut does not work on results audited to grid
• It is not possible to select last row when undo/redo script is opened via integrated editor
• The sa login is locked out when wrong password is provided for the sa account
• “Failed to load project” error is encountered when starting application with insufficient privileges
• Find panel is not initiated via Ctrl+F shortcut
• The same SQL Server instance can be added multiple times in the activation panel
• The displayed count of total rows found when recovering deleted data to a script file does not match the actual count of deleted rows
• “Object reference not set to an instance of the object” error is encountered when performing recovery from a drop operation on the database for the first time

Changes:

• The application now requires Microsoft .NET Framework 4.7.2

Enhancements:

• SQL Server 2019 CTP 2.0 support
• New error handling and send logs functionality
• Improved application installer with a dark theme
• New application icon
• The "Make new folder" button has been added to all browse for folder dialogs

Fixes:

• Date/time filter is not presented in the regional format if Spanish language and regional settings are used
• "Object reference not set to an instance of an object" error is encountered when data recovery is performed into a new database in a specific case

Enhancements:

• High DPI and 4K resolution support
• Applied concepts of Visual Language Dictionary for Visual Studio for iconography, imagery, colors, menus, fonts, formatting and other GUI elements
• Log reading is now up to 20,000% faster for all databases that contain over 1,000 SQL tables

Fixes:

• Application stops responding when double-clicking any of the main ribbon bar action icons
• Both 2017 and 2018 versions are shown in the control panel after update from application version 2017 to 2018
• The “Unexpected error” is encountered when clicking on Truncated data in the recovery wizard in specific case
• The “Object reference not set to an instance of an object” error is encountered during recovery of dropped data in a specific case
• The Show renewal option always resets its state to checked after Options dialog is closed
• The Get updates dialog is not closed via Esc key
• The information on application version used to generate the script is incorrect in the commentary of the generated script

Changes:

• New light, blue and dark themes are now available
• The application now requires Microsoft .NET Framework 4.7.1

Enhancements:

• Transaction log files and backups can now be read, analyzed and audited
• Undo and redo script can now be created to rollback or replay DML and DDL changes
• Auditing results can now be loaded and filtered in grid for forensic recovery and analysis

Fixes:

• Installer dialog elements will be incorrectly positioned in 4K screen resolution
• The "A generic error occurred in GDI+" error is encountered when undo/redo script which includes text value with over 10,000 characters is opened in built-in editor
• The main ribbon button tooltips are not descriptive for the particular option
• About form doesn't show full license information on used/remaining licenses
• Release notes link in the upgrade dialog does not lead to the release notes page
• Options can be selected when clicking on the area to the right of each button in Options dialog
• Options are not selected in the correct order when using the Tab button to navigate through them in the Options dialog
• Right mouse button click selects navigation buttons in the grid
• Excessive empty columns are shown in Field values filter dialog
• The SQL Server authentication fields are disabled when windows authentication is selected
• The “last X hours” filter does not properly filter recovery output

Changes:

• The Internal editor is renamed to Integrated editor

Enhancements:

• Support for SQL Server 2017 CTP 2

Fixes:

• Identifying transaction log files and reading transaction logs during recovery task suffers a 20 seconds stall on Windows 10 Creators update

Fixes:

• Detection of online transaction log and auditing processes are slower up to 1000% on Windows 10 with the anniversary update

Enhancements:

• SQL Server 2016 support
• 3 GUI themes are now available: white, colorful or dark

Fixes:

• Save as button is not working in the internal script editor
• Navigating back through active wizard removes provided password
• The "Could not find file 'ApexSqlRecoverServerRecover.dll' error is encountered when trying to install server side components on the specific SQL Server
• Trial limits recovery to 1 in 100 instead of 1 in 10 records
• It is not possible to disable automatic search of available datasources
• When the recovery/extraction process is canceled, incorrect information that 'recovery is completed' will be shown
• The 'Script editor' option always reverts back to the 'built in editor' once the options are closed/applied
• The "Attempted to read or write protected memory" error is encountered when recovering specific database using drop table option

Changes:

• Application now requires .NET framework 4.5.2

Fixes:

• The "Could not load file or assembly" error is encountered when recovering database without transaction log files
• Server choice is not locked in the "Connect to server" dialog in the activation form
• Object filter in the "Select the tables to recover" step of the recovery wizard is missing the drop-menu with existing schemas
• Incorrect message is displayed when connecting to the unsupported SQL Server
• The "Release notes" link in the "Update" dialog leads to an incorrect location

Changes:

• The recovery feature "From corrupted database or MDF file" has been discontinued

Fixes:

• The "Could not load file or assembly" error is encountered when recovering a deleted structure and data to a new database
• The number of recovered tables during the trial period is limited to 1 out of 10
• Recovery process cannot be performed directly to the database when recovered tables have IDENTITY property
• The "External component has thrown an exception" error is encountered when trial period is extended on remote SQL Server
• The "Adding a server failed" error is encountered when activating a server that has the same name as already activated other server, but has a different system name
• The "Update error: Unable to load one or more of the requested types" error is encountered when trying to update the application

Fixes:

• The application requires to be run with the Windows "Run as administrator" option on specific Windows configurations

Enhancements:

• Easier Server side components installation for remote servers
• Server side components are no longer necessary when recovering a local database
• The application now fully supports SQL Server 2014

Fixes:

• The "The specified schema name "<schemea_name>" either does not exist or you do not have permission to use it" error is encountered when recovering a table with a non-default/existing schema
• The "Unexpected error - Attempted to read or write protected memory. This is often an indication that other memory is corrupt" error is encountered when recovering deleted data from specific databases
• The main form flickers when selecting areas in the left menu
• The application cannot automatically detect the database recovery model

Changes:

• A new UI style

Known issues:

• The old application version isn't removed after the application has been updated

Enhancements:

• The application now fully supports Windows 8.1 and Windows Server 2012 R2
• Options for setting the intermediary and output folders have been introduced

Fixes:

• Rows from a partitioned table cannot be recovered if the online transaction log is not selected as a data source
• When SQL Server Service is running under a Network Service or Local Service account, the application stores all server side log files and metadata in the C:\Windows folder

Fixes:

• The information about the trial version limitation is not shown in the application
• 1 out of 100 records, instead of 1 out of 10, is recovered in trial mode
• Large data chunks could not be read in compressed backups

Enhancements:

• Recovery from SQL Server 2012 databases is fully supported including:
  • Dropped FileTables recovery
  • Lost FileTable data recovery
• Natively compressed transaction log and database backups can now be used as data sources for recovery
• Visual C++ run-time components are now installed on a remote server automatically during Server Side Components installation
• Numeric data stored in the vardecimal storage format can now be recovered
• Data lost due to TRUNCATE and DROP operations can now be recovered directly to a database
• FILESTREAM data can now be recovered from database backups
• Improved usability: the following filtering options have been introduced to specify the time frame in which the incident had occurred:
  • Last 60 minutes
  • Last 24 hours
  • Last 7 days
  • Last 30 days
  • A customizable date and time picker
  • Date and time are unknown
• Tables can now be recovered directly to a database in the following scenarios:
  • User defined data type definitions are missing for the tables being recovered
  • The tables being recovered contain calculated columns
  • Schema definitions are missing for the tables being recovered

Fixes:

• Local CHM help file is not used when available
• Invalid default file name is generated for the recovery script if the network protocol is specified explicitly as a part of the server name
• No icon is displayed in the header of the Additional data sources step in the ‘Recover lost data due to a DROP TABLE operation’ wizard
• ApexSQL Log icon is used in the Uninstall Server Side Components dialog
• Presence of the required .NET Framework service pack is not verified prior to installation
• Server Side Components always show as not installed in the Server Activation Center dialog if the machine name of the local server was specified as '.'
• The Server Activation Center dialog has no minimal size constraints
• The generated recovery scripts lack table header and footer
• The recovery script path is not preserved within a session
• By default, tables are displayed in the 'Recover lost data due to a DELETE operation' wizard are shown as deselected
• Options dialog tooltip icons have a background when Windows Classic theme is used
• Nothing is recovered from a detached MDF file residing on a remote server
• A detached MDF file is mentioned incorrectly as an additional data source available for recovery in the 'Recover lost data due to a DROP TABLE operation’ and ‘Recover lost data due to a DROP <object> operation' wizards
• Unnecessary empty spaces are added to the bottom of the generated recovery script when the transaction log processing is performed on the server
• BLOBs may be recovered incorrectly when transaction log processing is performed on the server
• "Connection to master database failed" error message is displayed in the Select data sources step of the Recovery wizard if the specified database backups are no longer available
• "Connection to master database failed" error message is displayed when connecting to a remote server in the 'Recover table data from a database backup' wizard
• The recovery script generated for objects containing apostrophes (') in their names has syntax errors
• TRUNCATE and DROP operations cannot be recovered to a database

Changes:

• The application now requires .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 to run properly

Enhancements:

• Application now supports recovery from SQL Server Denali CTP3 databases
• Application can now write recovered data directly to a database
• Application will now run as 64-bit process under 64-bit OSes
• Recovery from page and row compressed tables is now supported
• Recovery from SPARSE columns is now supported
• New main dialog that lists all available actions has been introduced for improved usability
• Recovery wizard has been redesigned for improved usability
• New standard Options dialog available from the main dialog through Options link has been introduced
• Server Usage options group has been added to Options dialog to control whether to perform recovery on the server. Available choices are Off (default), On and Auto
• New Resources link has been introduced to the main dialog for quick access to Help page, Support forum, Training page, FAQs, Knowledge base, Troubleshooting, About and Get Updates dialog boxes
• New Server Activation Center dialog has been implemented for Server Side Components management
• All appropriate application and Recovery wizard options have now a tooltip with a description
• Administrative privileges are no longer required for startup but only for Server Side Components installation

Fixes:

• Incorrect recovered row count is shown for lost objects recovery
• Application is unable to connect to default SQL Server 2008 instance
• Table DDLs are not recovered with 'Recover from corrupted database or detached mdf' recovery option
• Offline databases can be selected for recovery
• System.NullReferenceException exception is encountered on attempt to use HyperBac backup file in recovery
• Application does not check for updates on startup
• "Couldn't retrieve table" error is encountered when recovering table data from SQL Server 2000 backup
• "Unclosed quotation mark after character string" error is encountered when executing recovery script that contains uncommon characters that require quotation or line breaks
• "sys.sysrowsets could not be located" error is encountered on attempt to use transaction log backup with block size of 65,536 in recovery
• Application fails to check for updates on Windows Server 2003
• Online transaction logs are not selected by 'Several sources are available for data recovery' Data Availability setting by default
• System.NullReferenceException exception is encountered on attempt to recover BLOBs from detached database or database backup of bad format
• Output path setting is not remembered within application session

Changes:

• Select Recovery option step options have been moved the main application dialog
• Server Side Components of all older versions will now be uninstalled from the server when installing a newer version
• Progress dialogs have been updated to be more standard with other applications
• Setup Server-side Components dialog has been deprecated

Fixes:

• Server-side components installation fails on Windows Vista/7 with UAC turned ON
• Server-side components installation fails if the application extended stored procedure DLL (ApexSqlRecover2008Xprocs.dll) is locked by SQL Server
• In rare instances, SQL Server service stops when installation of server-side components fails because UAC is ON for Windows Vista/7 and/or the application extended stored procedure DLL (ApexSqlRecover2008Xprocs.dll) is locked by SQL Server
• In rare instances, data isn't recovered from deleted columns that have a BLOB data type
• Transaction log reading is unnecessarily extended beyond limits specified in time range filter causing unnecessary slowdowns during recovery
• When installing server-side components in Windows XP and when the SQL Server service is running under a Network Service account, a login dialog is sometimes unnecessarily displayed
• Redundant logging can cause unnecessary slowdowns during recovery and uncontrollable growth of application log files

Changes:

• The following new messages can now be shown during installation and execution of server-side components:
  • Insufficient permissions to execute server-side components. Please make sure SQL login used has EXECUTE permission on ApexSQL Recover extended procedures (ApexSQLRecover2008XProcs.dll).
  • Insufficient permissions to install server-side components. Please make sure you're a member of the sysadmin server role.
  • Insufficient credentials to install server-side components. Please check user name, password and/or domain name

Enhancements:

• BLOB reading now consumes less memory (up to 50% less)

Fixes:

• It's impossible to connect to SQL Server using Windows Authentication under Vista with active UAC
• When a machine's hardware ID changes, the server's activation status becomes invalid and re-activating is not possible
• "Unknown SQL Server version" error is received when reading SQL Server 2000 backups
• Online transaction log files sometimes cannot be accessed on an x86 OS that has more than 4GB of RAM
• The application fails when trying to read SQL Server 2000 database backups
• Servers with expired evaluation can't be activated
• Online transaction log and database files hosted on Windows 2000 cannot be read
• Transaction log backups are incorrectly shown on Add Data Sources step
• System.Exception exception is received when accessing Activate Product command from Help menu after Server-side Components were uninstalled
• Credentials aren't verified when activating a server with the use of SQL Server Authentication which prevents connection

Changes:

• Server-side components have been split to two independent sets: server-side components for ApexSQL Log and server-side components for ApexSQL Recover. On upgrade, un-used server-side components are deleted
  • Split ApexSqlServerXprocs2008.dll into ApexSqlLog2008Xprocs.dll and ApexSqlRecover2008Xprocs.dll
  • Split ApexSqlServerHelper2008.exe into ApexSqlLog2008ServerHelper.exe and ApexSqlRecover2008ServerHelper.exe
  • Split ApexSqlServerHelper2008.sys into ApexSqlLog2008ServerHelper.sys and ApexSqlRecover2008ServerHelper.sys
• All server-side logs for the application's server-side components are consolidated into one log file: ApexSqlRecover2008.log
• The following error messages have been replaced with more informative equivalents:
  • "Unknown error code: 128 during activation"
  • "ApexSqlServerHelper2008 failed: OpenSCManager() failed: Access is denied. (error code = 5)"
  • "Copy file for ApexSqlServerXprocs.dll failed: The system cannot find the path specified. (error code = 3)"
  • "Cannot access transaction log file"
  • "CreateService() failed: The specified service has been marked for deletion"
  • "ApexSqlServerHelper2008 failed: log2::lnhf::GetFileDeviceName: Access is denied."
• All application logs, both client and server-side, are now in UNICODE
• Evaluation period for each server has been changed from 30 days to 14 days

Enhancements:

• Transaction log backups and detached logs' processing performance was improved by approximately 25%

Fixes:

• Not all logged operations are shown when reading SQL Server 2008 transaction logs
• Application incorrectly identifies a local SQL Server cluster as a remote server
• Application can't connect to local instances of SQL Server 2008 using "(local)" on server field of login form
• Application always uses online transaction log instead of the selected transaction log backup

Enhancements:

• Added Main Menu to the application
• Added option to recover BLOB data as files
• Ability to recover data from database backups (BAK files)
• Ability to select specific tables when recovering data loss from detached databases or database backup
• Ability to install or uninstall server-side components from a server
• Added Summary screen at the end of wizard showing recovery process information
• Added option to show generated T-SQL recovery script in internal editor or in system default associated editor (in case the script is too big in size)
• Added support for new SQL Server 2008 types: DATE, DATETIME2, DATETIMEOFFSET, TIME, HIERARCHYID, GEOMETRY, GEOGRAPHY
• Added integrity check for server-side components
• Added tabled IDs to CREATE/DROP TABLE statements
• Improved statistics logging for queries and global memory
• Ability to open directory where application log files reside

Fixes:

• Fixed a performance problem when reconstructing updates on tables with clustered indexes
• Fixed a minor problem with application's finalization
• Fixed a minor problem with logging
• Fixed a problem with MONEY and SMALLMONEY formatting
• Location of activation form is always top left corner
• The same shortcuts are for finish and File menu (Alt+F)
• The same shortcuts are for Help menu and button (Alt+H)
• Typo in the description for the BLOB data recovering
• Lack of space in activation dialog title
• Activation dialog does not become active when select ApexSQL Recover from task panel after installation of server-side components is finished
• Different activation dialogs appear on application launch and from About dialog
• Application invokes error if ApexSQL Recover server-side components were installed over ApexSQL Log server-side components
• Incorrect description for dropped objects recovery
• Incorrect description for "no data source available" option in the recovery from DELETE operation section
• ApexSQL Recovery components are not compatible with 2005.11.0534 ApexSQL Log release
• All BLOB data recovers instead every 10th under trial license
• State of server-side components is determined incorrectly
• ApexSQL Recover is unable to recover data from DELETE operation
• Incorrect info is displayed for really recovered BLOB data
• Incorrect information about recovered rows in the Detach recovery for MS SQL 2000
• Application tries to connect to database from the previous session
• Selected database has no respective icon
• Application does not remember Output Path during one session
• On-Server installed application components are not activated
• Online transaction log is always used instead of checked transaction log backup

Changes:

• Removed database selection when recovering data loss from detached databases or database backup
• Removed ability for custom selections (check boxes) in Table Selection and Detached/Backup Selection steps
• Moved application log and other temporary application files from "Program Files" to user's own directories