Feature Request: test SQL attachment before restore

[yakamoneye18]

Hello Veeam Community,

we have a Feature Request concerning SQL Item Level Restore.
Our story: we backup our ERP database with Veeam Transaction Log backups. And we also use Veeam to restore these backups into our test databases for our developers.
Before we restore the database, we have to disable the services of the ERP software using it, if we do not do this, the restored DB cannot be attached after copied to the machine. The problem is, sometimes we forget one of the services. The result is that after about 90 minutes of mdf and ndf copy process, Veeam tries to attatch the DB and fails, and in the next step deletes all the already copied files.

My suggestion: Veeam could test the possibility to attach the new database before copying it, for example by creating a small dummy DB and trying to attatch it. If there are some services running, we will not waste 2 hours of file copy. There will still be the possibility that the services will be restarted during the restore process, but it would already be good to be warned about it before it starts.

Regards,

Tobias

[foggy]

Hi Tobias, we'd like to get more information on why Veeam B&R is not able to attach the database. This shouldn't be the case since prior to copying database files, Veeam B&R closes connections and deletes the original database. Basically, your suggestion to check whether attach is possible is reasonable, but chances are a simpler approach would help (f.ex. retries). I'd appreciate if you could open a case with our technical support and provide logs for deeper investigation. Thanks!

[yakamoneye18]

Hi Alexander,

thanks for your reply.
Before opening a support case, just a bit more information about it: we are using Microsoft Dynamics Nav 2013 as ERP. We had this behaviour in all previous Veeam versions, we never thought this could be some kind of bug.
Our explanation was that the running ERP services try to connect to the database permanently. When we recreate the test DB with Veeam, the first thing Veeam does is delete the database instance and all corresponding files. From now on, if we forget to disable the ERP services that connect to the DB (that does not exist anymore), we get errors in the SQL log every few seconds ("User xy Could not log in to database abc..."). Veeam then copies the database files, which needs about 1h20, and when Veeam tries to attach the DB, it fails. We can retry it as often as we want, it will always fail - until we disable the services. Then everything is fine.

I am not an SQL expert, but our ERP admin said this is the same he gets when he tries to restore manual MSSQL backup files - if the services are still running and trying to connect to the database, it is not possible to attach the database with this name.

Is this not an expected behaviour from the side of Veeam?

Thanks !

Regards,

Tobias

[foggy]

Thanks for the additional info, we will try to reproduce this internally - it looks like Veeam B&R is not able to attach the database in case someone keeps trying to connect to it. If this is the case, we will discuss possible ways to address this issue.