sp_BlitzBackups: refresh pushed media facts

[BrentOzar]

Recompute existing media facts in the push window and retained full backups, so stale values are corrected. Missing source rows remain unchanged; widen the existing lookback to refresh older logs.

Fixes #4118.

Validation: committed manual integration test passed across two disposable SQL Server 2022 instances: remote schema upgrade, populated-fact refresh outside the window, and RPC-disabled pushes with/without media columns. No new options or unrelated changes.

[chatgpt-codex-connector]

Codex Review Summary

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Review	Status	Commit	Review trigger
📝 Code Review	✅ Completed 2026-09-12T18:10:24.940228Z	c19ef13	New commits

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[chatgpt-codex-connector]

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Reviewed commit: d2be90dff9

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[Copilot]

🟡 Changes recommended

Three moderate findings remain involving cleanup reliability, RPC-disabled execution, and unnecessary full-history updates.

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Pull request overview

This pull request refreshes existing pushed media facts for the active window and retained full backups, with remote linked-server regression coverage.

Changes:

• Recomputes source-derived media facts and metadata.
• Preserves missing-source rows and refreshes older logs.
• Adds remote schema, refresh, and RPC-disabled push scenarios.

File summaries

File	Summary	Final review findings
sp_BlitzBackups.sql	Broadens centralized media-fact refresh behavior.	moderate (1 vote, L1961): RPC-disabled execution can fail during earlier remote batches before reaching the refresh. moderate (1 vote, L1961): unchanged retained rows are rewritten on every push, causing unnecessary history-wide updates.
.github/scripts/backup-remote-push-regression.sql	Tests remote push behavior and cleanup.	moderate (3 votes, L49): unconditional cleanup can mask setup failures and leave the fixture database behind.

Review details

Suppressed comments (2)

sp_BlitzBackups.sql:1961

• This refresh is unreachable when RPC OUT is disabled: before execution reaches this line, the push path unconditionally runs the index-maintenance batches at lines 1652-1786 via EXEC (...) AT [linked_server], and those pass-through calls require RPC OUT even when all destination indexes already exist. Therefore the new regression's RPC-disabled calls cannot exercise the distributed-DML path and will fail first; move the RPC-disabled guard before those batches or skip/replace the remote EXEC AT work in that mode.

    WHERE (b.backup_start_date>=DATEADD(hour,@Hours,SYSDATETIME()) OR b.type=''D'');';

sp_BlitzBackups.sql:1961

• Removing the NULL predicate makes every push rewrite every matching retained full row, even when both media facts and copied metadata already match the source. A centralized history with many full backups will therefore incur a full-history UPDATE (and its logging/locking/version-store cost) on every scheduled push. Keep the broadened candidate set, but add change detection (or stage the source values) so unchanged rows are not rewritten.

    WHERE (b.backup_start_date>=DATEADD(hour,@Hours,SYSDATETIME()) OR b.type=''D'');';

• Files reviewed: 2/2 changed files
• Comments generated: 1
• Review effort level: Lite

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[BrentOzar]

Addressed the two in-scope findings in c19ef13:

• Compare recomputed media facts and all copied metadata using NULL-safe EXCEPT; update only changed rows. The remote regression now audits affected rows and confirms an unchanged repeat push writes zero rows.
• Track remote fixture creation before cleanup. Injecting a failure before backup/remote creation preserves the original error and leaves neither fixture database behind.

The suppressed RPC-disabled finding is not applicable: the cited table/index EXEC AT batches are inside IF @@rowcount = 0 for the missing backupset table. Existing-table pushes skip them. Actual two-server SQL Server 2022 regression passed again with RPC OUT disabled, both with and without media columns. diff check passed. No unrelated changes or expanded review scope.