SQL Application Aware Processing

[HANDLEric]

Hello,

I have a pretty simple question that I can't seem to find an exact answer to. When using the Windows agent in volume level backup mode with application aware processing enabled for Microsoft SQL server - Do we need to also include the volumes where the SQL database files live? I notice with them unselected (Current config) we're still seeing data being transferred in relation to each of the databases being backed up and we aren't receiving any backup job errors but seeing some strange behavior on the retore side that we're trying to understand.

[PetrM]

Hi Eric and Welcome to Veeam R&D Forums!

You don't need to include any volumes except those that you want to protect. May I ask you to clarify how did you come to the conclusion that data is transferred in relation to each database?

Thanks!

[HANDLEric]

Hi Petr,

that was concluded through the size of the hourly transaction backups being displayed. Now to further clarify we do all all of the databases in the backup and everything is happy however we aren't able to restore and it's complaining about missing metedata files.

The SQL Server has 4 volumes: C (OS), D (Data), E (SQL Data - MDF), L (SQL Log - ldf) & T (SQL Temb DB). Currently the backup job only has the D volume defined in the backup job and we were under the impression that the SQL databases was being backup up through the application aware processing since they were displayed and showing healthy in all of the backup reporting.

[HANDLEric]

Alright so just to close the loop: For testing purposes we added all of the SQL data volumes into the volume level backup and ran an active full which resolved all the restore issues. Im highly surprised that VBR made it seem everything was kosher and data was protected when in fact a restore would have never been possible. You would think the product could be made smart enough to display at minimum a warning on the backup job alerting the admin of an incomplete dataset.

[PetrM]

Hi Eric,

Basically, you need to process volumes with SQL data as log backups process transaction logs only and do not fetch other data even it is related to a database. Therefore, it's expected to get the issue with missing metadata during restore. However, it's still unclear what exactly did you notice in transaction logs backup report? It would be definitely strange if you saw some misleading statistical data in the report, may I ask you to share a screenshot please?

Thanks!