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NetVault Plug-in for SQL Server 12.0 - User Guide

Introducing NetVault Backup Plug-in for SQL Server Planning your SQL Server deployment Installing and removing the plug-in Configuring the plug-in Backing up data
Defining a backup strategy Understanding snapshot-based backups Reviewing the compression features Performing Online VDI backups Performing VSS backups in SQL Server Example of creating a full VDI backup of an AlwaysOn Availability Group
Restoring data Troubleshooting

Setting Online VDI restore options

 
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IMPORTANT: After you have created a restore job, you cannot update the restore options located in the Create Restore Job — Choose Saveset page until you select the Modify check box. Also, you cannot view the Transaction Log Options tab until you select Modify.
1
On the Create Selection Set page, click Edit Plugin Options.
2
Configure the following parameters — these parameters are common to all backup types:
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Backup Method: This field displays the backup method used for the selected saveset.
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Backup Type: This field displays the type of backup used for the selected saveset.
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Restore Type: This section lets you specify the action that must be performed after the restore operation. You can select from the following options:
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With RECOVERY: Select this option if no further Transaction Log or Differential Database backups are to be applied after the restore of the selected data has completed.
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With NO RECOVERY: Select this option if you intend to apply a different Transaction Log or Differential Database backup after this restore has completed.
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With STANDBY: Select this option when applying an Incremental Transaction Log backup from the primary server in a warm standby server scenario.
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Verify-only: Select this option if you want to perform a verification check on a backup to determine if a backup set is complete and the entire backup is readable. The data is not restored.
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VDI Options: The VDI restore method lets you take advantage of Microsoft’s VDI API, which provides the maximum reliability and flexibility. You can set the following options for this method:
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Block Size (Bytes): This field lets you specify the device block size, in bytes. The default value is 64KB, that is, 65536 bytes.
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Transfer Multiple: The value specified in this field is used as a multiplier for the value specified in the Block Size field. The overall value of the two serves as the maximum allowable data transfer size. That is, the Block Size default of 65536 bytes multiplied by the default Transfer Multiple of 24, results in a maximum allowable transfer size of 1.6MB.
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Restore Options: This section contains the following options:
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Target Instance: This field lets you restore the database to a different SQL Server Instance. The procedure for this type of restore is outlined in Restoring a database to an alternate instance. Leave this option blank for a standard restore of the database to the same SQL Server Instance and for AlwaysOn Availability Group restores to the primary node.
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Undo File for Standby Restores: For performing Standby Restores, the plug-in requires a temporary Undo File. It is required only when the Restore Type is set to With STANDBY. By default, the path is blank. Specify the directory path for the temporary UNDO.DAT file in this field. You can set a default path for field in the Configurator. For more information, see Configuring plug-in options.
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Enable Restore Checksum: Specifies that backup checksums must be verified and, if the backup lacks backup checksums, causes the restore operation to fail with a message indicating that checksums are not present. Select this check box to enable restore checksum.
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Error Encountered During Checksum: If checksum is enabled, that is, the Enable Restore Checksum check box is selected, indicate what the plug-in should do if it encounters a checksum error. Select one of the following options from the list:
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Continue After Error: This option is the default action set during the plug-in installation. With this value selected, the restore job will proceed, if the corruption permits, after returning a checksum error with the number of the page containing the invalid checksum.
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Stop on Error: With this value selected, the restore job reports a checksum error and stops if it encounters errors.
To change the default action for this option for all subsequent jobs, see Configuring plug-in options.
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Restore as compressed, read-only database: If you are using an NTFS-based system and the backup was created using NetVault Backup-based compression or no compression, select this option to restore a user database or Tail-Log as a compressed, read-only database. This option is dimmed if the backup was created using the SQL Server Backup Compression feature.
This option is useful if you want to save space when you restore a production database to a non-production environment. Because SQL Server cannot support a read/write database that resides in a compressed folder, it is restored as read-only.
By default, NTFS-compressed files and folders are displayed in Windows using different colors to distinguish them from standard files and folders.
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Restore Location: Enter the path to a compressed folder where the data files and log files should be restored to. If the folder does not exist, NetVault Backup creates the folder as an NTFS-compressed folder. If the specified folder exists and is not an NTFS-compressed folder, the job fails and displays this message: “Database cannot be restored as compressed in this folder, specify a new folder or select an existing compressed folder.”
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If you are restoring an Incremental Transaction Log or Tail-Log backup, click the Transaction Log Options tab, and configure the following parameters to set the recovery point:
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Enable Point-in-Time Restore: Select this check box to enable PIT recovery of the log backup.
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Point-In-Time Options: You can perform PIT recovery with either the timestamp of the transaction or the named mark for the transaction.
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Date and Time: To perform recovery up to a specific point within the log backup, select this option and set the Time — using hours:minutes:seconds — and Date in the respective fields.
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Marked Transaction: To perform recovery up to a mark within the Transaction Log backup, select this option. In the Mark field, enter the string to identify the transaction mark. Select Stop At from the list to perform recovery up through this transaction — the marked transaction is included. Select Stop Before to recover all transactions before this mark.

Finalizing and submitting an Online VDI restore job

The final steps include setting additional options on the Schedule, Source Options, and Advanced Options pages, submitting the job, and monitoring the job’s progress. You can monitor progress by using the Job Status and View Logs pages. These pages and options are common to all NetVault Backup Plug-ins. For more information, see the Quest NetVault Backup Administrator’s Guide.

1
Click OK to save the settings, and then click Next.
2
In Job Name, specify a name for the job if you do not want to use the default setting.
Assign a descriptive name that lets you easily identify the job for monitoring its progress. The job name can contain alphanumeric and non-alphanumeric characters, but it cannot contain non-Latin characters. On Windows, there is no length restriction; however, a maximum of 40 characters is recommended.
3
In the Target Client list, select the machine on which you want to restore the data.
 
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TIP: You can also click Choose, and then locate and select the applicable client in the Choose the Target Client dialog box.
4
Use the Schedule, Source Options, and Advanced Options lists to configure any additional required options.
5
Click Save or Save & Submit, whichever is applicable.
You can monitor progress on the Job Status page and view the logs on the View Logs page. For more information, see the Quest NetVault Backup Administrator’s Guide.

Restoring data from VSS backups

The Microsoft VSS restore process includes the steps outlined in the following topics:

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Selecting data for a VSS restore
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Setting VSS restore options
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Finalizing and submitting a VSS restore job
 
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IMPORTANT: The SQL Server Instance must be stopped when restoring the master database.

Selecting data for a VSS restore

1
In the Navigation pane, click Create Restore Job.
2
On the Create Restore Job — Choose Saveset page, select Plug‑in for SQL Server from the Plugin Type list.
3
To filter the items displayed in the saveset table further, use the Client, Date, and Job ID lists.
The table displays the saveset name (job title and saveset ID), creation date and time, and size. By default, the list is sorted alphabetically by saveset name.
The following table outlines the backup-type identifiers:
 
Backup type
Backup type identifier

Full Database

VSS Full

Differential Database

VSS Differential

Copy-Only

VSS Copy Only

4
In the saveset table, select the applicable item.
When you select a saveset, the following details are displayed in the Saveset Information area: Job ID, job title, server name, client name, plug-in name, saveset date and time, retirement setting, Incremental Backup or not, Archive or not, saveset size, and snapshot-based backup or not.
5
Click Next.
6
On the Create Selection Set page, select the applicable instance or the database for inclusion in the restore procedure.
Although you can double-click a node to open it and display the database name, and further drill-down shows items, you cannot select them.
7
If you are restoring data from a persistent snapshot, skip to Finalizing and submitting a VSS restore job.
To restore data from a persistent snapshot, no additional steps are required before you submit the job. After you submit the job, the plug-in automatically obtains the snapshot information from the backup index. If the snapshot is available, the plug-in mounts it locally and restores the selected files from the snapshot. If the snapshot is unavailable, the plug-in restores the file data from the storage media.
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