How to create a database snapshot?

Use below code to create a database snapshot:

CREATE DATABASE <SnapshotName> ON

( NAME = <Logical_FileName1>, FILENAME = 'SnapshotFile1'), --eg. X:\Snap1.ss

(NAME = <Logical_FileName1>, FILENAME = 'SnapshotFile1')

AS SNAPSHOT OF <SOURCEDatabase>;

GO

Note!

1) You must provide snapshot file name for all the logical files of the source database. Snapshot is a readonly copy of the source database at the given time when snapshot was created.

2) You must be careful about keeping snapshot for long time of a big busy (VLDB/OLTP) database. This can cause space issue and also performance issue. Please go through the architecture of this technology and sparse file before implementing it.