Backing up an SQL Server

[jac]

Right, so I've been reading through all the FAQ's and user guides regarding the Application aware Image processing and have informed my boss that Veeam will be backing up our SQL servers in a fully recoverable way.

However he says SQL is not VSS aware and does not believe the SQL backups will be transaction-consistent.

Can anybody who knows a bit more about SQL explain to me how the process actually works and what Veeam does (with the Application aware feature enabled) to ensure that any restores of SQL databases would be transaction consistent?

Many thanks
James

[iroche]

He is wrong. Just read the User Guide search for VSS and transaction-Consistent and it will give you the answers needed.


Check out this webinar - http://go.veeam.com/webinar-rick-vanove ... WUcQ%3D%3D

[foggy]

I would also recommend reading this white paper (just register to get access to it).

[Vitaliy S.]

Also here are some good topics that would help you:
Production SQL Server Backup Strategies & Best Practices
SQL Server 2008 Backup Best Practices
Veeam Backup for SQL Servers

[Gostev]

However he says SQL is not VSS aware

If we are talking about Microsoft SQL here, have him open command prompt on any SQL server, and run vssadmin list writers command to see Microsoft SQL VSS Writer present.

[morrisos]

[merged]

Has anyone actually successfully restored a virtual SQL server? If so what job parameters did you use? Application aware image processing? Did you then restore SQL databases from most recent backup?

Any other tips?

Thanks for any information.

Morrisos

[morrisos]

Does Veeam actually provide a consistent state backup of an active SQL Server? I currently run native sql backups and Veeam backups (non-application aware) of same SQL servers.

I've not been confident of doing a restore of a SQL server and having the database uncorrupted.

Any info is appreciated.

Thanks, Morrisos

[michaelwright1971]

Hya,

We have a SQL server running on a ESXI host. It is the only VM on that host.

On Friday I tried to do a full server backup which looked to be doing well until the vmdk file ran out of space for one of the drives on the datastore because of the snapshot it was producing.

The VM then went offline and so I cancelled the job and brought the vm back online.

This looked to be the only issue at first but on further inspection it seems the SQL transactions had been working while the backup was being carried out.

I was using the backup defaults for this job except I did enable Application aware processing & guest file system indexing.

I have noticed that some admin use direct SAN access for backing SQL. which I haven't selected.(we have our storage connected via Iscsi.)

Also I ran the job whilst jobs were being processed.

Question: Where am I going wrong, what is the best way to back up this server?

cheers Mike

[Vitaliy S.]

Hi Michael,

Just make sure you have enough space for the snapshot and enable application-aware image processing with logs truncation enabled.

I have noticed that some admin use direct SAN access for backing SQL. which I haven't selected.(we have our storage connected via Iscsi.)

Even with iSCSI SANs you can still leverage proxy servers running in direct SAN mode. Please search these forums for more info on how it should be configured.

BTW, are you on v7? Do you have parallel VM and disk processing option enabled? This would allow you to keep snapshot open for less time.

Thanks!

[scottg]

Is Veeam capable or close to being capable of taking a backup that transaction log backups can be replayed after restore?

[Vitaliy S.]

Veeam itself cannot run point-in-time restores. If you're doing logs backup via 3rd party tool already, then you can use Veeam to backup VM image with SQL Server and use other tools to replay the logs.

[scottg]

So for example, can I restore my Veeam application aware backup, and then restore my xlog backups taken using a SQL maintenance plan? I know this was an issue in the past.

Or am I stuck needing a 3rd party (or SQL maintenance plan) full backup to restore prior to running the xlog restore? In which case I would want to set my SQL server Veeam backups to not application aware to keep the chain intact.

Thanks.

[chrisdearden]

You can still use application aware processing, just ensure that we are not truncating the logs in the advanced options.