Windows 2003 server enterprise and sql 2000 enterprise.

[xvendrell]

Hello,

I have a customer with a OLD INFRAESTRUCTURE. But, for legacy software support, they can't upgrade this.

Windows: 2003 server enterprise
SQL: SLQ 2000 enterprise

Questions:
1- You can use veeam backup with 2003 VSS to backup the SQL 2000 with coherece? ( I see some information about this, and seems it's possible use VSS with SQL 2000 enterprise...., but can confirm this?
2- If it's possible use VSS and can do a good backup, the veem can truncate the logs? (I see in others posts that this is NOT possible).

Thanks!!

[wishr]

Hi Francesc,

The list of supported by AAIP systems can be found here. Unfortunately, SQL 2000 is not supported.

Thanks

[xvendrell]

Hi,

SQL 2000 is not supported in "application-aware processing", in veeam 9.5. But with veeam 6.0 or 6.5, the backups of sql with VSS can be transactionally consistent?

Thanks

[wishr]

Well, to the best of my knowledge, B&R 6.0 or 6.5 should work if the guest OS is WServer 2003. However, it's definitely NOT recommended to stick with such outdated B&R versions - they are not supported anymore.

I would recommend you to take a look at that topic covering SQL 2000 backup best-practices.

Thanks

[xvendrell]

windows 2003 is not suported anymore...
SQL 2000 is not suported anymore....
the version of SAP insalled in this customer is not suported anymore....

The veeam backup 6.5 is the it's the smallest problem I have!!!!!

If I can make a consistent backup, I'm very happy!!!!

[nmdange]

Worst case, use SQL Server Agent to run SQL full and transaction log backups to files and then back that up with Veeam.

[wishr]

Hi Francesc,

Absolutely understand your frustration. That's the downside of using any sort of outdated platform/OS/application/software version, but in reality, the biggest problems of these olds are instability and tonnes of known vulnerabilities that cannot be patched/fully mitigated with any 3rd-party protection software (IDS/IPS are not ideal!). At some point, you always come to a point when an upgrade is necessary.

As for the backups, I would give a try the latest B&R version in a bundle with Pre-Freeze and Post-thaw scripts in this scenario (just make sure that the guest OS has SP1 installed) - some basic information can be found in the thread mentioned in the above post, or you can stick with nmdamage's suggestion regarding SQL server agent.

Thanks

[foggy]

SQL 2000 is not supported in "application-aware processing", in veeam 9.5. But with veeam 6.0 or 6.5, the backups of sql with VSS can be transactionally consistent?

If I'm not mistaken, even previous Veeam B&R versions could not perform logs truncation for SQL 2000.

[xvendrell]

Can see in event log any information about if vss works fine in sql transaction, whem the backup finished?

[wishr]

Hi Francesc,

Sure, in the latest B&R versions you can check the result of the child SQL T-log job in the Windows Event log on the B&R server. The path is: "Application and Services Logs" folder, Veeam Backup view. Then you can try to use search (ctrl+f) and paste "SQL Server Transaction Log" phrase to find out the required events. Also, the result of the T-log Job can be checked in the B&R UI in when you click on the SQL T-log session.

Please note, that our monitoring solutions (Veeam MP, Veeam ONE) are capable of providing advanced visibility and reporting on the B&R jobs including SQL Server T-log jobs.

Thanks

[xvendrell]

Thanks!!!!

[mweissen13]

Hi xvendell!
Using a pre-freeze Script to stop the SQL Server and a post-thaw Script to restart it you should be fine. If you can not bear the small downtime however, i would go with the SQL server agent solution.
We have been backing up an old Windows 2000 machine (VM) with SQL 2000 for ages now with post/pre Scripts and never had a problem.

[TGacs]

Worst case, use SQL Server Agent to run SQL full and transaction log backups to files and then back that up with Veeam.

[s]This^^ is what we do for our legacy 2003Ent+SQL2000 systems. Application processing is DISABLED in Veeam for these VMs.[/s]

Edit: Actually, as I think about it - that's what we used to do. What we do now is have SQL2000 full and transaction logs backup to a shared folder (with permission restrictions, of course) on the Veeam backup host's backup volume. This greatly reduces the amount of file changes on the VM's volumes by eliminating all the large SQL backup, yet the SQL backups are still stored on the same redundant storage as the Veeam backups.

SQL transaction log backups are every 15 min during the day
SQL full backups are once per day.
Veeam incremental backups are every 3hrs, during working hours.

These SQL backups are just for 15minute intraday frequency SQL restores for the last couple of days. Anything older than that would require a restore of the SQL DB files or the entire VM from the 3-hour frequency of the Veeam backups. This is also why we do not copy these separate SQL backup files off when we do weekly Backup Copy jobs of the VM for offsite. We consider it an acceptable risk.