SharePoint Explorer is unable to find content database

[timmi2704]

Hi,

would someone be able to explain the requirements for Veeams SharePoint Explorer in order to make it able to automatically mount the content database belonging to a selected site collection?

When I select application file restore for SharePoint Items for the Web Server, Veeam automatically builds the SharePoint site collection list to select from.
But when I select the site collection, I get the error message "Unable to find SQL Server VM hosting the content database". Is there anything I missed?

If I use the SharePoint Explorer on an already mapped Database server, I can successfully mount the files and restore from it.

Thanks a lot for your ideas
Timo

[foggy]

Timo, do you have application-aware backup of the SQL server containing the content database for the selected collection? Do you see the exclamation mark on the corresponding collection's icon in the list?

[timmi2704]

Hi Alexander, thanks for your fast reply.

Yes, application-awareness is enabled for al SharePoint servers including the database server.
And you are right, I have the exclamation mark for all site collections in the list.

[foggy]

Were there any VSS warnings in the corresponding backup job session? I mean, are you positive that the SQL server was successfully backed up and application-aware image processing didn't produce any warnings/errors? Exclamation mark means that Veeam B&R was not able to collect required information about SQL server during VSS backup.

[timmi2704]

The last job runs were without any errors or warnings.
There are two different SharePoint farms in the job, could that be the issue?
For the second farm in the job, I have the same problem. But here some of the site collections do not show the exclamation mark.
Then there is an additional SharePoint-Test farm with a separate backup job with the same issue.

[Moebius]

I have exactly the same issue.
In my environment I have only one farm, but the SharePoint server and the SQL database are on two separate VMs.
No errors at all on the backup sessions, and yellow exclamation mark on all the corresponding collection's icons in the list. Application-aware processing is enabled.

A ticket is already open and currently being investigated; case #00822453.

[foggy]

Currently, application-aware logic uses NetBIOS names to locate corresponding SQL servers during backup and in some cases (where SQL server for the site collection is specified using IP address or SQL Server alias, for example), Veeam B&R still does not have the required information, even provided that application-aware backup was successful. If this is your case (I believe support will be able to verify that), you can configure SQL server mapping manually via registry, as far as I know, there's an ability to do that.

[Moebius]

Foggy, you're correct. Support sent me the registry mod to manually map the SharePoint servers to the relevant SQL vms.
The yellow exclamation marks disappeared and everything is working now. Good job Veeam!

[chkiena]

Hello, can someone please post the registry key, in our environment we have the same problem.

[foggy]

Christian, please contact technical support to get the key and instructions on how to populate/use it.

[mubasm]

Dear Moebius, can you pls. share the registry key which you tried in sharepoint servers, as my SQL server is physical, will the registry key still work.
Support guy is telling as sql server is physical registry key will not work

[foggy]

Mohammed, there's simply no sense in using them for physical servers, since physical servers cannot be backed up by Veeam B&R.

[VanillaMastermind]

I have 2 SharePoint 2013 servers, both running all the SharePoint services EXCEPT the database(s). Both of these servers point to separate SQL Server 2012 instances on another machine. The SharePoint APP servers are configured identically (I believe) with one exception. SPAPP1 used to point to a SQL instance somewhere else. We had to move those to this a new database server. The vendor that configured SharePoint said there were issues with migrating databases, so when databases got moved, he set up a SQL Server Alias (Can be found under SQL Server Configuration Manager -> SQL Native Client 11.0 Configuration -> Aliases).

OLD CONFIG
SPAPP1 -> DATABASE_SERVER_NEW\SP1
SPAPP2 -> DATABASE_SERVER_OLD\SP2

NEW CONFIG
SPAPP1 -> DATABASE_SERVER_NEW\SP1
SPAPP2 -> DATABASE_SERVER_OLD\SP2 (ALIASES TO DATABASE_SERVER_NEW\SP2)

I am able to open the SharePoint Explorer fine for SPAPP1 and can do item-level recovery. However, SPAPP2 won't let me open SharePoint Explorer. Instead, for each SharePoint site, I see an exclamation point with an error "SQL Server VM hosting the content database is missing". Is anyone else running into this issue when using a SQL Server alias? Or perhaps Veeam gets confused with multiple SQL Server instances on the same machine?

[foggy]

Please contact support to get assistance in manual configuration of SQL server mapping (see above for details).

[jtroob]

I contacted support and these are the registry settings you have to make to get this to working after using an sql alias:

(Copy/Paste from Veeam Support email)

Here is the info I was working off to create the Reg Key.

How-to:
Create HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Veeam\SPSToSQLMap\ key. It should be a sibling to the Veeam Backup and Replication key, not its child.
Add String values, where Name is the Sharepoint server FQDN (if FQDN doesn't work, try NetBIOS), and Data = "<SQL_SERVER>\<SQL_INSTANCE>".
E.g. Name = DHPSP1.domain.local (or e.g. DHPSP1), Data = DHPSPSQL1\SP2013. If using the default unnamed instance, Data would just be "DHPSPSQL1".
If you have multiple SQL servers for a single Sharepoint, separate instance names by ; e.g. DHPSPSQL1\SP2013;DHPSPSQL2\SP2013.
Add as many as needed if there are multiple Sharepoint servers.
Restart Veeam Backup Shell.

[Alexfriel]

We have 2 Sharepoint Servers 2010 that are pointing to 1 Sql Server 2008.
The first Sharepoint Servers works with restore of Sharepoint contents.
But if we try to restore Sharepoint contents on the second Sharepoint Server we receive the error message "SQL Server VM hosting the content database is missing".
We tried to put the reg-Key SPSToSQLMap and restart Veeam-Server but the workaround is not working for us.
In the string we put the fdqn like Name=Sharepointserver.domain.local,Data=Sqlserver.domain.local\Instance
We tried also with netbiosname.
Any idea? Is the syntax of the string properly right?
Thx

[foggy]

Alexander, the syntax is not right. As it is described in the post right above yours, you need to create a SPSToSQLMap key and add values under it, each for every SharePoint server you're mapping. Each value should be named by the SharePoint server FQDN and contain 'SQL_Server\Instance' as value data.

[Alexfriel]

Dear Alexander,

now it´s working. Thank you for the transparent answer.
I was not being able to see the forest for the trees

[DavidRobertson]

Same issue here, directed here by support. I have asked customer to apply registry fix and will see if this resolves the issue.