Plug-in for Microsoft SQL Server + Backup to tape

[Nick_kok]

Hello!

We are having some difficulty managing SQL Server Plug-in backups and copying them to tape.

From what we can tell, there is no direct way to copy Pug-in backups to tape other than File-to-Tape backups.

As it stands right now, Plug-in backups create a single "folder" on the target repository with the SQL instance name, let's say INST1.

If we want to have daily, monthly and yearly backups through the Plug-in, we need to create separate jobs, with different retention periods.

All jobs however, create files that fall under the same folder on the repository, INST1, with no way to distinguish between the daily, monthly and yearly files, outside the restore database wizard.

This makes it impossible to assign the different files/jobs to different Media pools and would force us to copy to tape the ENTIRE backup set during EVERY monthly and EVERY yearly backup cycle.

Is this correct? Are we missing something? If this is indeed the case, are there any plans to provide extra functionality or more granular control over the Plug-in backups?

For example, creating subfolders for the different jobs, or even appending the job name to the file name would suffice because it would allow us to create filters.

(I have also opened a support case for this 07035473)

[Mildur]

Hello Nikolaos

Unfortunately we don't support Plugin Backups to Tape. A File To Tape Job must be used as a workaround.

We aware of the request to provide direct support for Backup To Tape jobs. But there is no ETA we can provide today.

Best,
Fabian

[Nick_kok]

Thanks for the update, what about a GFS policy on plugin backups or the ability to distinguish between daily monthly and yearly?

[Nick_kok]

Apologies for spamming, is there a way to specify a folder or a repository where the SQL backups are saved when running the MSSQLRecoveryManager.exe command?

[PetrM]

Hello Nikolaos,

GFS for SQL plug-in is an important feature request, we'll implement it in one of our future releases but I cannot give more information now.

The only way to select a repository is to use our configuration tool, you cannot specify it as an argument for MSSQLRecoveryManager.exe command. This request is also well known. For Oracle RMAN and SAP HANA, we solved it by application backup policy which enables job/policy-level repository selection (example is here) and most likely we'll do the same for SQL plug-in. Application policy for SQL plug-in is one of the most important requests at the moment.

Thanks!

[Nick_kok]

Understood and thank you for the information

For the moment, a sufficient "hotfix" would be to append some configurable string in the vasm/vab files, specified through an argument in the command line

This way, we could filter the file backups and create the necessary schedules as a workaround.

As we are rolling out a Veeam deployment at the moment, where we need to leverage tapes both for offloading and as an air-gap, we would prefer not to resort to application-aware and cluster-aware backups

EDIT

Any kind of timeline, even Q2 2024 would be helpful at this time because we need to planning

[PetrM]

Hi Nikolaos,

I cannot share any information about timeline at the moment, it depends on many different factors. I appreciate your feedback and the idea about the configurable string, we'll discuss this option internally.

Thanks!

[Nick_kok]

Thanks for the update

I kept thinking on this matter and I would like to run a scenario with you, lets say I have a 30 day + 10 month + 10 year retention policy on the SQL backups, implemented over three separate jobs on an SQL server instance, where I back up all my databases as full backups every day, month and year

This means that, after three months for example, I will have 30x daily files + 3x monthly files in the SQL instance folder, in my repo

If I set up a back up schedule for this folder to tape daily and incrementally, with a retention period of 30 days, I should end up with 30 daily + 3 monthly files, correct?

Then once the 4th monthly schedule runs, I will end up with 30 daily + 4 monthly files and so on

The tapes I have used to spread this data over, will become empty over time, as data expires and then I can reuse them at the end of their cycle

Lets say 11 months have passed, my first monthly backup will expire and will be deleted from the repository

Then, after another 30 days, it will expire from the tapes as well, correct?

Then my only problem should be data fragmentation within the tapes, where I might have empty space within a tape that will need a lot of time to expire

[PetrM]

Hi Nikolaos,

First of all, we don't have tape support for plug-in backups at the moment. File to tapes for plug-in backups is not a supported workaround and we cannot guarantee the stable functioning of this scenario so I don't recommend using it.

Basically, tape data retention is managed at the level of media pool, all available options are described on this page. Tape retention workflow knows nothing about GFS settings and SQL Server jobs configuration, thus data is retained according to the media pool settings.

Thanks!

[Nick_kok]

Hello everyone, are there any news regarding plug-in to tape backup copies?

[PetrM]

Hi Nikolaos,

The status is still the same: it's a valuable feature request for all application plug-ins, but at the moment, I have no information about ETA.

Thanks!