NetBackup™ Web UI Microsoft SQL Server Administrator's Guide

Last Published:
Product(s): NetBackup & Alta Data Protection (10.4)
  1. About NetBackup for SQL Server
    1.  
      Overview of NetBackup for SQL Server
    2.  
      Detailed features for NetBackup for SQL Server
  2. Installation and host configuration
    1. Planning the installation of NetBackup for SQL Server
      1.  
        NetBackup server and client requirements
      2.  
        Requirements for using NetBackup for SQL Server in a NetBackup cluster
      3.  
        License for NetBackup for SQL Server
    2. Configuring SQL Server hosts and user permissions
      1.  
        Installing the Veritas VSS provider for vSphere
      2.  
        Disabling the SQL Server VSS Writer service
    3.  
      Configuring the NetBackup services for SQL Server backups and restores
    4.  
      Configure local security privileges for SQL Server
    5.  
      Reviewing the auto-discovered mappings
    6.  
      Configuring mappings for restores of a distributed applications, clusters, or virtual machines
    7.  
      Configuring the ODBC connection
    8.  
      Configure NetBackup for the SQL Server non-readable secondary instances that are hidden
    9.  
      Configuring the primary server host name for the SQL Server agent
    10.  
      Configure the number of jobs allowed for backup operations
    11.  
      Configure the Maximum jobs per client setting
  3. Configuring RBAC for SQL Server administrators
    1.  
      RBAC roles for the SQL Server administrator
    2.  
      RBAC permissions that are needed to view and manage SQL Server and VMware jobs
  4. Managing SQL Server discovery and credentials
    1. About discovery of SQL Server objects
      1.  
        Discover advanced or basic availability groups on demand
      2.  
        Discover databases on demand
      3.  
        Discover read-scale availability groups
    2. About credentials used with SQL Server Intelligent Policy About SQL Server credentials
      1.  
        Add a credential for SQL Server
      2.  
        Select a credential for a SQL Server instance or replica
      3.  
        View the credential name that is applied to an asset
      4.  
        Edit or delete a named credential
    3.  
      Remove SQL Server instances
    4.  
      Manually add a SQL Server instance
  5. Managing protection plans for SQL Server
    1.  
      About protecting SQL Server availability groups
    2. Create a protection plan to protect SQL Server assets
      1.  
        Schedules
      2.  
        Performance tuning and configuration options
    3.  
      Add SQL Server assets to a protection plan
    4.  
      Customize protection settings for a Microsoft SQL Server asset
    5.  
      Remove protection from SQL Server assets
    6.  
      Protect a SQL Server availability group that crosses NetBackup domains
  6. Configuring backup policies with Snapshot Client
    1.  
      About NetBackup Snapshot Client for SQL Server
    2.  
      How SQL Server operations use Snapshot Client
    3.  
      Snapshot methods
    4.  
      Configuration requirements for SQL Server snapshot and Instant Recovery backups
    5.  
      Configure a snapshot policy for SQL Server
    6.  
      Configure a policy for Instant Recovery backups of SQL Server
    7. Using copy-only snapshot backups to affect how differentials are based
      1.  
        Creating a copy-only backup (legacy SQL Server policies)
      2.  
        Creating an Instant Recovery backup that is not copy-only (legacy SQL Server policies)
    8. About SQL Server agent grouped snapshots
      1.  
        Restoring a database backed up in a group
  7. Viewing SQL Server asset details
    1.  
      Browse SQL Server assets
    2.  
      View the protection status of databases, instances, or availability groups
  8. Restoring SQL Server
    1.  
      Requirements for restores of SQL Server
    2.  
      Perform a complete database recovery
    3.  
      Recover a single recovery point
    4.  
      Options for SQL Server restores
    5.  
      Restore a database (non-administrator users)
    6.  
      Select a different backup copy for recovery
    7.  
      Restore a SQL Server availability database to a secondary replica
    8.  
      Restore a SQL Server availability database to the primary and the secondary replicas
  9. Using instant access with SQL Server
    1. Prerequisites when you configure an instant access SQL Server database
      1.  
        Hardware and configuration requirements of instant access
    2.  
      Things to consider before you configure an instant access database
    3.  
      Configure Samba users for SQL Server instant access
    4.  
      Configure an instant access database
    5.  
      View the livemount details of an instant access database
    6.  
      Delete an instant access database
    7.  
      Options for NetBackup for SQL Server instant access
    8.  
      NetBackup for SQL Server terms
    9.  
      Frequently asked questions
  10. Protecting SQL Server with VMware backups
    1. About protecting an application database with VMware backups
      1.  
        Limitations of VMware application backups
    2.  
      About configuring NetBackup for VMware backups that protect SQL Server
    3.  
      Configuring a VMware backup policy to protect SQL Server
    4.  
      Configuring a VMware policy to protect SQL Server using Replication Director to manage snapshot replication
    5. Create a protection plan to protect SQL Server data with a VMware backup
      1.  
        Backup options and Advanced options
      2.  
        Exclude disks from backups
      3.  
        Snapshot retry options
    6.  
      Protect SQL Server data with a VMware backup
    7.  
      Restore SQL Server databases from a VMware backup
  11. Performance and troubleshooting
    1.  
      NetBackup for SQL Server performance factors
    2. About debug logging for SQL Server troubleshooting
      1.  
        Setting the debug level on a NetBackup for SQL Server client
      2.  
        Veritas VSS provider logs
    3.  
      Troubleshooting credential validation
    4.  
      Troubleshooting VMware backups
    5.  
      SQL Server log truncation failure during VMware backups of SQL Server
    6.  
      About monitoring NetBackup for SQL Server operations
    7.  
      Setting the maximum trace level for NetBackup for SQL Server
    8.  
      Reporting of unsuccessful filegroup or file backups
    9.  
      About minimizing timeout failures on large SQL Server database restores
    10.  
      SQL Server restore fails when you restore a SQL Server compressed backup image as a single stripe or with multiple stripes
    11.  
      Incorrect backup images are displayed for availability group clusters
    12.  
      A restore of a SQL Server database fails with Status Code 5, or Error (-1), when the host name of the SQL Server or the SQL Server database name has trailing spaces
    13.  
      A move operation fails with Status Code 5, or Error (-1), when the SQL Server host name, the database name, or the database logical name has trailing spaces
    14.  
      Unable to discover or browse availability group replicas
    15. About disaster recovery of SQL Server
      1.  
        Preparing for disaster recovery of SQL Server
      2.  
        Recovering SQL Server databases after disaster recovery

About protecting an application database with VMware backups

With a VMware backup policy and the Veritas VSS provider, NetBackup can create consistent, full backups of an application database that resides on a virtual machine.

VMware application backups let you:

  • Choose whether or not to truncate logs.

  • Use the existing database restore process to restore and recover data from VMware backups.

  • From one VMware backup, choose from these restore options: Volume-level restore, file-level recovery, or database restore.

  • With the Enable T-SQL snapshots option, NetBackup create a full SQL Server backup (not copy-only) that can be used as a basis for SQL Server incremental and transaction log backups. T-SQL snapshots were added with SQL Server 2022 and are strongly recommended for systems with SQL Server 2022 or later. This type of snapshot is not supported with SQL Server 2019 and earlier.

  • Restore and recover databases from VMware backups to alternate clients. The target destination client can be a physical computer or a virtual machine.

Supported environments and configuration

See the following information on virtual systems compatibility:

https://www.veritas.com/content/support/en_US/doc/NB_70_80_VE

Veritas VSS provider

Veritas recommends the Veritas VSS provider. VMware Tools calls the provider to quiesce the VSS writers for a file-level consistent backup. Without this VSS provider (or the VMware VSS Provider), database recovery may require manual steps and granular recovery is not supported.

See Installing the Veritas VSS provider for vSphere.

The Veritas VSS provider allows the VMware backups that truncate the logs on SQL Server virtual machines. The Veritas VSS provider truncates the logs by means of full VSS backups. Note that the VMware VSS provider creates copy-only backups, which cannot be used as a basis to truncate logs.

Disabling the SQL Server VSS Writer service

For VMware backups with T-SQL snapshots, you must also disable the SQL Server VSS Writer service.

See Disabling the SQL Server VSS Writer service .

Using NetBackup Accelerator to increase the speed of full VMware backups

Select the Use Accelerator policy option to use NetBackup Accelerator to potentially increase the speed of full VMware backups. (This option is not available in the settings for a protection plan.) By reducing the backup time, it is easier to perform the VMware backup within the backup window. To use this feature, you must first perform an initial backup with Use Accelerator enabled. Subsequent backup times can then be significantly reduced. Accelerator support for database agents currently restricts backups to the full schedule type.

To periodically establish a new baseline of change detection on the client, create a separate policy schedule with the Accelerator forced rescan option enabled.

For more details on Accelerator with VMware backups, see the NetBackup for VMware Administrator's Guide.

For Accelerator to work with a VMware policy with application protection for SQL Server, a successful and complete previous backup is required to gain acceleration optimization. A backup job or child job (including the ASC) can have an incomplete status (Status 1). In that case, the backup image is not considered as a base backup for a subsequent job and acceleration optimization for that job is zero.