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NetBackup™ Web UI Microsoft SQL Server Administrator's Guide

Last Published: 2023-03-31

Product(s): NetBackup (10.2)

Overview of NetBackup for SQL Server

The NetBackup web UI provides the capability for backups and restores of SQL Server databases. You can perform the following operations:

View discovered instances, databases, or availability groups.
Back up SQL Server instances, databases, and availability groups.
NetBackup offers the following types of SQL Server backup methods:
- Protection plans
  Instances are automatically discovered in the NetBackup environment. The SQL Server administrators can select one or more protection plans that contain the wanted storage, backup, and tuning settings.
- SQL Server Intelligent Policies
  A single policy protects multiple SQL Server instances that are spread over multiple clients. You select instances for a policy from a list of instances that are automatically discovered in the NetBackup environment.
- Policies, using clients and batch files
  These policies include a list of SQL database clients and a batch file. The batch file contains SQL Server backup commands to run when the backup is scheduled.
Restore the databases that are protected with protection plans.
Monitor backup and restore operations.

In this guide, Microsoft SQL Server is referred to as SQL Server. NetBackup for Microsoft SQL Server is referred to as NetBackup for SQL Server.

Table: NetBackup for SQL Server features

Feature	Description
Integration with NetBackup role-based access control (RBAC)	The NetBackup web UI provides RBAC roles to control which NetBackup users can manage SQL Server operations in NetBackup. The user does not need to be a NetBackup administrator to manage SQL Server operations. However, the user still must be a member of the Windows administrator group and have the SQL Server "sysadmin" role.
Protection plans and SQL Server Intelligent Policy	The following benefits are included: Use a single protection plan or policy to protect the following: Multiple SQL Server instances, instance databases, availability groups, or availability databases. Instances can be spread over multiple clients. Include a full, differential, and transaction log backup in the same policy. Schedule frequent backups of transaction logs. You are not required to know SQL Server commands or to write and use batch files. Instead, this feature automatically generates the batch files at run-time.
Management of SQL Server assets	NetBackup automatically discovers SQL Server instances and availability groups in the environment. You can also perform manual discovery. After instances or replicas are registered, the SQL Server workload administrator can select one or more protection plans to protect the SQL Server assets.
Authentication and credentials	SQL Server protection plans and SQL Server Intelligent Policy support the following: Windows authentication Windows Active Directory authentication With the proper configuration, you do not have to run the NetBackup service account as a privileged SQL Server user on the client.
Backup and restore features.	The following features are available for backups and restores: Backups and are managed entirely by the NetBackup server from a central location. Administrators can schedule automatic, unattended backups for instances on local or remote hosts across the network. The NetBackup web UI supports the backup and restore of databases and transaction logs from one interface. Note: SQL Server recovery with the web UI requires that the SQL Server client is at version 8.3 or later. Backup schedules for full, differential, or transaction log backups. Manual backups and copy-only backups. Support for high availability (HA) environments, including SQL Server clusters and availability groups. Restore SQL Server objects to different locations (redirected restores). Ability to use multiple stripes during a backup. Tuning options that can improve the performance of backups.
Stream-based backups and restores	Stream-based backup and restore of SQL Server objects with SQL Server's high-speed virtual device interface.
Snapshot backups and instant access databases	NetBackup can perform backups of SQL Server with snapshot methodology. Backups with policies also offer off-host backups, Instant Recovery, and backups with a hardware provider. You can also create an instant access database from a NetBackup backup image. The database is available almost instantaneously, achieving a near-zero recovery time objective. NetBackup mounts the database's snapshot directly on the backup storage device and treats the snapshot as a normal database.
Support for VMware backups that protect SQL Server	VMware protection plans and VMware intelligent policies offer support for application-consistent, full backups of VMware computers using snapshots. The VMware intelligent policy also supports Replication Director (RD) snapshots. Use of NetBackup Accelerator can increase the speed of backups. See the following for more information. Use Accelerator to back up virtual machines Application protection options (VMware) NetBackup Replication Director Solutions Guide
Multistreaming	(Backups with policies) Ability to use multiple stripes during a backup.
Legacy SQL Server policies	Support for the legacy backup policies that use batch files and a list of clients.