Comprehensive data protection for all workloads
Post Reply
jac
Lurker
Posts: 2
Liked: never
Joined: Aug 30, 2011 1:49 pm
Full Name: James Consterdine

Backing up an SQL Server

Post by 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
Enthusiast
Posts: 30
Liked: never
Joined: May 20, 2011 8:27 am
Full Name: Ian Roche
Location: Ireland
Contact:

Re: Backing up an SQL Server

Post by 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
Veeam Software
Posts: 21069
Liked: 2115 times
Joined: Jul 11, 2011 10:22 am
Full Name: Alexander Fogelson
Contact:

Re: Backing up an SQL Server

Post by foggy »

I would also recommend reading this white paper (just register to get access to it).
Vitaliy S.
VP, Product Management
Posts: 27055
Liked: 2710 times
Joined: Mar 30, 2009 9:13 am
Full Name: Vitaliy Safarov
Contact:

Re: Backing up an SQL Server

Post by Vitaliy S. »

Gostev
Chief Product Officer
Posts: 31456
Liked: 6647 times
Joined: Jan 01, 2006 1:01 am
Location: Baar, Switzerland
Contact:

Re: Backing up an SQL Server

Post by Gostev »

jac wrote: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
Lurker
Posts: 2
Liked: never
Joined: Apr 28, 2011 2:06 pm
Full Name: SM
Contact:

Virtual SQL Server Backup

Post by 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
Lurker
Posts: 2
Liked: never
Joined: Apr 28, 2011 2:06 pm
Full Name: SM
Contact:

[MERGED] Backing up SQL Servers

Post by 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
Novice
Posts: 6
Liked: never
Joined: Nov 03, 2013 6:17 pm
Full Name: Michael Wright
Contact:

[MERGED] Backing Up a VM Esxi Sql Server

Post by 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.
VP, Product Management
Posts: 27055
Liked: 2710 times
Joined: Mar 30, 2009 9:13 am
Full Name: Vitaliy Safarov
Contact:

Re: Backing up an SQL Server

Post by Vitaliy S. »

Hi Michael,

Just make sure you have enough space for the snapshot and enable application-aware image processing with logs truncation enabled.
michaelwright1971 wrote: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
Novice
Posts: 3
Liked: never
Joined: Oct 17, 2013 1:30 am
Full Name: scott geske
Contact:

Re: Backing up an SQL Server

Post by scottg »

Is Veeam capable or close to being capable of taking a backup that transaction log backups can be replayed after restore?
Vitaliy S.
VP, Product Management
Posts: 27055
Liked: 2710 times
Joined: Mar 30, 2009 9:13 am
Full Name: Vitaliy Safarov
Contact:

Re: Backing up an SQL Server

Post by 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
Novice
Posts: 3
Liked: never
Joined: Oct 17, 2013 1:30 am
Full Name: scott geske
Contact:

Re: Backing up an SQL Server

Post by 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
Veteran
Posts: 1531
Liked: 226 times
Joined: Jul 21, 2010 9:47 am
Full Name: Chris Dearden
Contact:

Re: Backing up an SQL Server

Post by chrisdearden »

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

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: MartinO and 175 guests