Back Up SQL Server Data

You can back up the data on your client computer and restore it when required.

Backup Types

The following backup types are available through the SQL Server Agent:

• Full

• Differential

• Transaction Log

• Block-Level

Supported Backups

The SQL Server Agent supports backup of the following components:

Backup Considerations

• The SQL Server agent supports streaming backups of SQL databases hosted on SMB shares.

• The SQL Server agent supports streaming backups of SQL databases hosted on Cluster Shared Volumes (CSV). The agent supports the CSV file system for SQL Server 2012 and later applications that are supported by Microsoft on CSV.

• The SQL Server agent supports backups on the file systems that are supported by Microsoft (EXT4 and XFS file systems on Linux and NTFS and ReFS file systems on Windows).

• To back up databases, the SQL instance collation and the SQL system databases collation must match.

• In a farm configuration, SQL databases with Unicode names should be backed up using other SQL backup tools since the SQL Server Agent supports only the standard alphanumeric characters. The SQL Server Agent does not support databases with extended ASCII or UNICODE characters in their names.

• If TDE or Always Encrypted is enabled, then the following rules apply:

  • Backups are not affected.

  • If you have a storage policy that uses deduplication, then the deduplication ratio is low or non-existent.

  • If the restore destination is a different client or instance, then the SQL administrator must back up the encryption key, and present it to the destination instance.

Unsupported Backups

• The SQL Server Agent does not support VSS-enabled backups of full-text indexes (FTI) for SQL Server 2005. Instead, use the Windows File System Agent to back up the full-text indexes.

• The tempdb database is not backed up because it is recreated by the SQL Server every time the server is started.

• The SQL Server Agent does not support VSS-enabled backups of SQL Analysis Services.

• The SQL Server Agent does not support VSS-enabled backups of SQL databases hosted on SMB shares.

The following backups are not supported for SQL Server on Linux configurations:

• Application-Aware

• Block-level

• FFG

• IntelliSnap

• VSS

Block-Level Backup Considerations

When you perform a block-level backup operation, the database backup runs as a full VSS backup.

When you restore a block-level backup, the destination must have free space that is equal to or greater than twice the database size.

For information about VSS restore considerations, see Are there any considerations when restoring databases backed up by snap or VSS?

Backup Changes in Service Pack 11 and Higher

Beginning in Service Pack 11, Commvault offers a simplified backup process that enhances backup performance.

The Commvault software skips Simple Recovery model databases by default during Transaction Log backup. The databases are not converted to differential backups.

Databases that are not online are not included in backups so that there are no unnecessary backup failures

The Commvault software skips read-only databases during a transaction log backup.

The Commvault software skips read-only databases in differential backups.

You can change the behavior to the rules that were in place before Service Pack 10 by configuring options in the control panel.

1. On the CommCell Console ribbon, click the Home tab, and then click Control Panel.

2. In the User pane, click SQL iDataAgent.

   The SQL Configuration dialog box appears.

3. Make the desired configuration changes. For more information, see SQL Agent Configuration (SQL Configuration).

Related Topic

For a video about VSA App-Aware backup, see How to protect Microsoft SQL using VSA App-Aware backup.