Backup of large MSSQL with Veeam and NetApp

[dasfliege]

We are facing the following challenge:

- Very large and quickly changing database on Windows VM on vSphere.
- Database size 9TB, Veeam reported changerate per day 1-2TB
- Every 3 months, we have to copy the database to a testsystem

Right now we are performing windows agent backups daily. We switched from vSphere to agent backups because the database has such a high changerate that vSphere snapshots were open too long and took hours to consolidate after the backup was finished. It's x-times faster with agent now. What we're still struggling with, is that the database suffers performance wise during the backup window. Also performing the copy to testsystem every 3 months takes like 10 hours to complete, since restoring individual files from a agent backup isn't the fastest possible solution.

We use NetApp A-Series storage for our vSphere datastore and have them fully licenses including Snapcenter. So what i was wondering is, if it mayber would be a better solution to use NetApp Snapcenter to "backup" the database and do the copy to testsystem tasks. But i am completely aware that NetApp Snapcenter isn't a proper backup solution and i therefor still want to have Veeam backups of the database.

Is there anyone facing similar challenges and has a nice solution? I guess the best way would be to let Netapp handle the whole application aware stuff and then use Veeam to backup the snapshots from the NetApp which should be application aware then. Since this isn't a classic backup from storage snapshot (I don't want veeam to trigger VSS and snapshot on the VM), i don't know if this is possible? What would be an alternate solution?

[david.domask]

Hi dasfliege,

Try Veeam MSSQL Plugin if VSS is a concern -- you'd install the plugin on both the source and target testsystem servers to do the backup and test restores.

Should avoid the headaches you're facing with the image / volume level backups and performance during backup.

[dasfliege]

I tried the MSSQL Plugin a while ago, but it did not fullfill all our requirements back then. Don't rember what the killer was though. Think it was not able to Copy-Job, Tape-Out or be placed on SOBR with capacity-tier. We do need all of them.
I do see in the helpcenter that Copyjobs of Plugin backups are now supported? How about Object-Storage offload in SOBR and Backup-to-Tape jobs?

[david.domask]

Correct, Backup Copy jobs now support MSSQL Plugin backups, and v13 allows for backup to Object Storage. Capacity Tier is supported as well in v13 however please note the considerations.

Tape will remain a sticking point at the moment, so File to Tape will still be required at the moment, but v13 + the MSSQL plugin should help address the performance concerns during backup.

[PetrM]

Hello,

A quick note regarding using file-to-tape jobs to process plug-in backups: this is unsupported, and I don't recommend it because there are scenarios in which restores from tape will not be possible. The ability to send plug-in backups to tape is one of the most important requests in our backlog. Nevertheless, I cannot share an ETA. However, you can use the backup copy job for Microsoft SQL Server backups and process its backups with a file-to-tape job when the copy job is disabled.

Thanks!