===== [V7] ISSUE: The length of the device name provided exceeds supported limit (maximum length is:259) (MS SQL database backup) ===== Article ID: 5323
Reviewed: 2018-03-21

Product Version:
AhsayOBM: 7.3.0.0 to 7.x
OS: Windows ATTENTION 1st January, 2022: v7 officially End-of-Life [details] ===== Problem Description ===== When performing a MS SQL database backup (ODBC backup mode), the following error message is received in the backup report:

No.	Type	Timestamp	Log
*	...	...	...
*	info	...	[Start] Backing up "SQL_hostname\...\long_db_name" ... to "temp_path\long_db_name"
*	warn	YYYY/MM/DD hh:mm:ss	[Microsoft][ODBC SQL Server Driver][SQL Server]Invalid device name. The length of the device name provided exceeds supported limit (maximum length is:259). Reissue the BACKUP statement with a valid device name.
*	...	...	...

===== Cause ===== This is a warning message returned by the SQL server, suggesting that length of the directory path to the backup device (e.g. temporary folder path plus the database name) exceeded 259 characters.

Note:
The maximum number of characters is a limit imposed by the SQL server and not AhsayOBM. ===== Resolution ===== To resolve the issue:

Option 1 - Modify the temporary directory for storing backup files to a shorter directory path:

or

Option 2 - Rename the database to a shorter name if possible.

Refer to the following document for instruction: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/relational-databases/databases/rename-a-database

or

Option 3 - Create a new MS SQL Server backup set in VSS backup mode:

===== Keywords ===== sql, odbc, exceed, exceeds, exceeded, max, maximum, char, character