Issue with Restoring SQL Server Always-On Availability Group (AG) Database to Original Location in VBR 12.x

[tbtfw]

Background:
We have a Microsoft SQL Server Always-On Availability Group (AG) with the following configuration:

Primary Cluster Subnet: 10.100.1.0/24

Node IP: 10.100.1.10
Cluster VIP: 10.100.1.11
AG Listener IP: 10.100.1.12

Failover Cluster Subnet: 10.100.2.0/24

Node IP: 10.100.2.10
Cluster VIP: 10.100.2.11
AG Listener IP: 10.100.2.12

SQL Server is configured with TCP/IP properties as follows:

Loopback IP addresses: Listening on default port 1433/tcp
IPAll: Configured to listen on a non-standard port 9433/tcp

Issue:
When attempting to restore a database in an AG to the original location using:
Right-click Database > Restore Database > Restore Point-in-Time State to MSSQLNODE1.local,
we receive the following error:

Error: A network-related or instance-specific error occurred while establishing a connection to SQL Server. The server was not found or was not accessible. Verify that the instance name is correct and that SQL Server is configured to allow remote connections. (provider: Named Pipes Provider, error: 40 - Could not open a connection to SQL Server)

However, we were able to work around the issue by selecting:
"Restore Database > Restore to Another Server" and manually specifying the Cluster VIP with port (MSSQLCLUSTER01,5001).

This workaround is suboptimal because:

It requires manual intervention to specify the host and port.
The database is not directly restored to the AG.
We found this Veeam article: Veeam Help Center - SQL Server AG Restore, which seems to suggest that this might be a limitation of Veeam VBR.

Questions:

• Is this a limitation of Veeam VBR 12.x?

• Is it possible to fully automate the restoration of an MSSQL AG database to its original location without manually specifying the server and port?

• Is there any Veeam-supported method to restore the database directly to the AG?

[PetrM]

Hello,

Answering your questions:
1) At the moment, we do not have enough information to conclude that this is a Veeam limitation. It appears to be a technical issue, so please open a support case and share the support case ID with us. I suspect the DNS name of the target server is not being resolved on the Veeam B&R server, you may check both the FQDN and the short name (e.g., ping -a Name). Anyway, let's see what our support team finds out.

2) Yes, it is. You can use our "one-click" wizard (Right-click Database > Restore Database > Restore Point-in-Time State to MSSQLNODE1.local) after the network issue is resolved or automate the restore process using PowerShell.

3) Yes, you can restore to the Availability Group. You can find more information on this page of our user guide.

Thanks!

[tbtfw]

Thanks for your response.
I am hitting another issue that I am unable to kick start the restore and return with error once we disable MSSQL dynamic port settings which is our basic security hardening.
Is that mandatory to have dynamic port enabled?

[PetrM]

Hello,

Yes, please refer to this page for more information about the required ports. Additionally, this article about dynamic RPC port allocation may also be helpful.

Thanks!