Complete the Databases Guided Setup for Azure SQL Instance

The Databases guided setup guides you through creating a server plan and adding a SQL database server.

Go to the Databases Guided Setup

1. From the navigation pane, go to Guided setup.

   The Welcome page appears.

2. On the Protect tab, click the Databases tile.

   The Databases guided setup appears.

Create a Server Plan That You Can Use for the Azure SQL Instances

The server plan defines how often the software backs up the database and the log files, and where it stores the backups.

If you already have a server plan that you can use, you can skip this step.

Before You Begin

To create a server plan, you must have the Plan Creator Role assigned to your user account.

Procedure

1. On the Create server backup plan page, click Create a new plan, and then specify the settings for a server plan that you can use for the SQL Server instance.

2. Settings	Steps
   Plan name	Fill in the following plan information: Choose whether to create a new plan or use a base plan. If you selected Create a new plan, in the Plan name, enter a name for the server plan. If you selected Use existing base plan, specify the plan name and select a base plan.
   Backup destinations	Click Add copy. The Add copy dialog box appears. In Name, enter a name for the backup destination. From the Storage list, select the storage to use for the backups. You can use the Metallic Recovery Reserve cool storage class for creating secondary copies, but not for creating primary copies. To specify the start time for backups on a specific date and later, move the Backups On and After toggle key to the right. For Retention rules, enter the amount of time to retain the backups. To specify additional backups, such as weekly full backups, move the Extended retention rules toggle key to the right, and then add rules. Click Save. To add additional regions to the backup destination, move the Multi-region toggle key to the right, and then select the regions. You can also add more regions and associate the storage copy to the region.
   RPO	For Backup frequency, click Add. The Add backup frequency dialog box appears. From the Backup type list, select the backup type, and from the for list, select All agents or Databases. Specify the frequency of the backup. To specify the client time zone, full backup database frequency, or to add exceptions, move the Advanced toggle key to the right, and do the following: From the time zone list, select the time zone according to which the backups must run. If you select incremental or differential backup type for all agents or databases, to modify the full backup frequency of the database, specify a value for Run full backup on databases every option. To add exceptions when the backups must not run, click Exceptions, and then add exceptions for any day of a month or week or schedule an exception for any week of the month. Exceptions repeat every week or month according to the selected exception. To modify the transaction log frequency, or enable disk cache for log backups, in the Run transaction log for databases field, click Edit . For Transaction log, specify how often to run log backups. To automatically back up the database logs to the MediaAgent cache, move the Advance toggle button to the right and do the following: Move the Use disk cache for log backups toggle key to the right. For Commit every, enter how often to commit the logs to the CommServe computer. Disk caching of database logs applies to the following databases: Informix, Microsoft SQL Server on Windows, Oracle, Oracle RAC, and SAP HANA Note The database schedules are available only if the server plan is applicable to database solution and only one transaction log schedule can be added to that specific plan. For Backup window (if incremental and differential backups are supported for the workload), specify when you want incremental and differential backups to run. For Full backup window, specify when you want full backups to run.
   Folders to back up	To back up only some content, in Content to back up, enter the content to back up. By default, all content is backed up. To exclude folders or files from the backup, in Exclude - files/folders/patterns, enter the content to exclude. Specify whether to include the system state in backups: To include the system state in all backups, move the Back up system state toggle key to the right. To include the system state only in full backups, select the Back up system state check box and the Only with full backup check box. To use Windows Server's VSS (Volume Shadow Copy Service) to back up the system state, select the Use VSS for system state check box.
   Snapshot options	Under Snapshot options, do the following: Specify how to retain snapshots: To specify a number of jobs to retain on a snapshot copy, select Number of snap recovery points, and then enter the number of jobs to retain. To specify a retention period, select Retention period, and then enter the amount of time to retain the jobs. If you don't want to create backup copies, move the Enable backup copy toggle key to the left to turn it off. For Backup copy frequency, enter how often to run backup copy jobs.
   Database options	Under Database options, do the following: For Log backup RPO, enter how often to run log backups. To automatically back up the database logs to the MediaAgent cache, do the following: Move the Use disk cache for log backups toggle key to the right. For Commit, enter how often to commit the logs to the CommServe computer. Disk caching of database logs applies to the following: Informix, Microsoft SQL Server on Windows, Oracle, Oracle RAC, and SAP HANA.
   Override restrictions	Leave the Allow plan to be overridden check box cleared.

3. Click Save.

Add a Database Server for Azure SQL Instance

1. On the Add database servers page, from the Application type list, select Cloud DB.

2. From the Select vendor list, select Microsoft Azure.

3. From the Database service list, select SQL server.

4. Beside Cloud account, click +.

   The Add cloud account dialog box appears.

5. In the Name box, enter a name for the new cloud account.

6. To connect to the Azure account without using managed identities, move the Connect using managed identities for Azure resources toggle key to the left, from the Credentials list, select the credential for the Azure cloud account.

   For more information about setting up managed identities for Azure, see Setting up Managed Identity Authentication for Azure Resource Manager.

7. In the Subscription ID box, enter the subscription for Azure cloud.

   For instructions about accessing this information from the Azure portal, see SQL Server Azure Cloud Connection Properties.

   Note

   If you enabled connecting to the Azure account using managed identities, you need only the subscription ID.

8. From the Access nodes list, select the access nodes to use for the SQL instance.

   You can add multiple access nodes to discover instances and databases. The Commvault software uses only the first proxy server in the list.

9. To specify the connection information for Azure SQL, under Connection details, do the following:

   1. Go to Azure SQL instance, in the Staging path used for import/export box, enter the staging path available on the access node.

      Note

      A staging path with Microsoft SQL Server Data-Tier Application Framework (DacFx) allows you to export an Azure SQL database to a BACPAC file larger than 200 GB.

      If the access node has Commvault software that is deployed using the version that is older than Feature Release 30, in the Storage connection string box, enter the string to access data within the Azure storage account.

   2. Beside the SQL server authentication list, click +.

      The Add credential dialog box appears.

   3. In the Credential, User account, Password, and Description boxes, enter the credentials of an Azure Server admin account.

      By default, this account is the instance server admin account that has access to the instance and database to perform all operations, including backup, restore, and browse operations.

   4. Click Save.

10. From the Plan list, select the server plan to use for the Azure database server.

11. From the Instance name list, select the Azure SQl instance.

12. Go to Connection details, and complete the following:

    1. In the Staging path used for import/export box, enter the staging path available on the access node.

    2. From the SQL server authentication list, select the credentials of an Azure Server admin account.

13. Click Finish.