This may be a dumb question, but what is the preferred way for performing backups on a clustered SQL Server database. Is it better to backup to use: 1. BACKUP DATABASE [master] TO [masterbackup] WITH INIT , NOUNLOAD , NAME = N'master db backup', NOSKIP , STATS = 10, NOFORMAT or 2. EXEC master.dbo.xp_sqlmaint N'-D master -CKAL -CKCAT -BKUPDB -BKUPMEDIA DISK -USEDEFDIR -BKUPONLYIFCLEAN -VRFYBACKUP -DELBKUPS 1DAYS' They both do the same thing, but the date is attached to option 2. Does it really matter how a clustered db is backed up? Please let me know what you all think. Thanks.