What's stored in the Veeam SQL Database? Does it benefit from newer SQL version improvements?

[Mgamerz]

As far as I am aware, the SQL Server that is included in veeam (you can use your own, but that's not my question here) B&R is based on 2012 (or at least, it used to be. That's what mine was originally done as). I know some people in the past talked about upgrading the server to 2014 or 2016 or 2017 express and saw "speed improvements", but I was under the assumption that almost all data and metadata is not actually stored in the SQL Database, only really information about the backup environment (the configuration database).

Does upgrading the veeam SQL server to a new version - and setting the... can't recall the name off hand - the compatibility version to the same as the SQL server actually provide any real tangible benefit?

[Dima P.]

Hello Mgamerz,

Express edition follows the same set of limitations described here. I'd rather recommend trying SQL Server Standard edition

[Mgamerz]

I understand the difference between same year editions of SQL Server, we don't have anything remotely large enough to use the full size of the DB. I am wondering about the query speed, and how much the DB is actually used in backup or restore operations. From what I can tell, the metadata for each restore point is stored in the restore point itself, and the guest index (if any) is stored in a separate zip file. With those components out of the way I don't know how much benefit one would get from upgrading SQL Server 2012 Express to 2017 Express, for example.

Here is an article (not from veeam) that talks about something like this: https://www.snurf.co.uk/veeam/veeam-upg ... -2016-sp1/

[Gostev]

The most significant improvement can be achieved by using SQL Server 2014 or later (for cardinality estimator). Overall though, we don't leverage the latest and greatest SQL Server features, because we need to be compatible with earlier SQL Server versions that we still support. Thanks!