InfoScale™ 9.0 Storage Foundation Quick Recovery Solutions Guide for Microsoft SQL Server - Windows

Last Published:
Product(s): InfoScale & Storage Foundation (9.0)
Platform: Windows
  1. Introducing Quick Recovery for SQL Server
    1.  
      About Quick Recovery snapshot solutions
    2.  
      About snapshot-assisted backups
    3.  
      Advantages of Quick Recovery snapshots
    4.  
      Quick Recovery process
    5. Methods of implementing Quick Recovery snapshots for SQL Server
      1.  
        About the Quick Recovery Configuration Wizard
      2.  
        About the VSS Snapshot Scheduler Wizard
      3.  
        About the VSS Snapshot and Snapback wizards and the vxsnap utility
    6. About the components used in Quick Recovery
      1.  
        FlashSnap and FastResync
      2. Integration with Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Service
        1.  
          VSS framework
        2.  
          VSS process
    7.  
      VCS, Microsoft clustering, and Volume Replicator considerations
    8.  
      About the Solutions Configuration Center
    9.  
      Starting the Configuration Center
    10.  
      Solutions wizard logs
  2. Preparing to implement Quick Recovery for SQL Server
    1.  
      Tasks for preparing to implement Quick Recovery for SQL Server
    2. Reviewing the prerequisites
      1.  
        Storage requirements and best practices
      2.  
        Configuration requirements and best practices
    3.  
      Reviewing the configuration
    4. Configuring SQL Server storage with Storage Foundation for Windows
      1.  
        Creating dynamic disk groups
      2.  
        Creating dynamic volumes
      3.  
        Pointing the databases and log paths to the SFW volumes
  3. Implementing Quick Recovery for SQL Server with the configuration wizard
    1. About the Quick Recovery Configuration Wizard
      1.  
        Backup types for snapshot sets
      2. About snapshot templates
        1.  
          Templates and multiple components
        2.  
          Templates and schedule start dates
    2.  
      Tasks for implementing snapshot sets with the configuration wizard
    3.  
      Reviewing the prerequisites
    4. Scheduling SQL Server snapshot sets
      1.  
        System Selection panel details
      2.  
        Instance Selection panel details
      3.  
        Mount Details panel details
      4.  
        Synchronizing Schedules panel details
      5.  
        Template Selection panel details
      6.  
        Number of Snapshot Sets panel details
      7.  
        Snapshot Volume Assignment panel details
      8.  
        Snapshot Schedule panel details
      9.  
        Specifying snapshot schedule details
      10.  
        Summary panel details
      11.  
        Template Implementation panel
  4. Scheduling or creating an individual snapshot set for SQL Server
    1.  
      About scheduling or creating an individual snapshot set
    2.  
      Tasks to schedule a new snapshot set
    3.  
      Tasks to create a one-time snapshot set
    4.  
      Reviewing the prerequisites
    5.  
      Preparing the snapshot mirrors
    6.  
      Scheduling a new snapshot set
    7.  
      Creating a one-time snapshot set
    8. Refreshing a snapshot set
      1.  
        Reattaching the split-mirror snapshots
  5. Maintaining or troubleshooting snapshots
    1.  
      Viewing the status of scheduled snapshots
    2.  
      Troubleshooting scheduled snapshots
    3.  
      Deleting or modifying schedules
    4.  
      Synchronizing schedules after adding a cluster node
  6. Recovering a SQL Server database
    1.  
      About recovering a SQL Server database
    2.  
      Tasks for recovering a SQL Server database
    3.  
      Prerequisites for recovering a SQL Server database
    4.  
      Types of recovery
    5.  
      Recovering using snapshots without log replay
    6.  
      Recovering using snapshots and log replay
    7.  
      Restoring snapshots and manually applying logs
    8. Recovering missing volumes
      1. Preparing for the recovery
        1.  
          Reassigning the drive letter or mount points of the missing volumes to the snapshot volumes
        2.  
          Replacing hardware and adding disks to the dynamic disk group
      2.  
        Performing the recovery
    9.  
      Post-recovery steps
    10.  
      Vxsnap restore command reference
  7. Vxsnap utility command line reference for SQL Server
    1.  
      About the vxsnap utility
    2. Vxsnap keywords
      1.  
        vxsnap prepare
      2.  
        vxsnap create
      3.  
        vxsnap reattach
      4.  
        vxsnap restore

Specifying snapshot schedule details

From the Snapshot Schedule panel on the Quick Recovery Configuration Wizard, you can display the Edit Snapshot Schedule dialog box to specify a recurring schedule, a time window, a different run date, or other details for a snapshot schedule.

Choose from the following settings on the Edit Snapshot Schedule dialog box and then make additional selections on the dialog box tabs:

Pre Snapshot Script

Optionally, specify the full path of a script to run before the scheduled snapshot occurs.

In a cluster environment, script files should be located on shared storage.

For security purposes, ensure that script files are not accessible to any user with fewer privileges than the user account under whose context the scheduler service is running. Otherwise, a user with fewer privileges might change or replace the file that is launched by the scheduler service.

Post Snapshot Script

Optionally, specify the full path of a script to run after the snapshot is complete.

Backup Type

Select a backup type.

You can specify that snapshots be created as either a Full backup or Copy backup type. Any snapshots taken between the time a full backup is taken and the time a log backup is taken can be used as a base to restore and replay the logs. If the replay of logs is not necessary, then either type of snapshot can be used to restore the database to the time of the snapshot set. A Copy backup does not affect the sequence of log replay and therefore is often used as an "out of band" copy for purposes such as testing or data mining.

On the General Options tab, you can specify the following:

Start Time

The time of the day to begin taking snapshots

End Time

The time of day to end taking snapshots. If a snapshot is in progress it is completed but a new one is not started after the end time.

Restart task every

The interval between snapshots, in minutes.

For example, if the interval is 360 minutes and you schedule a snapshot start time of 12 P.M. and an end time of 7 P.M., the snapshot occurs twice. If no interval is specified the snapshot occurs once.

Schedule takes effect on

The date on which the specified schedule takes effect. If you specify no other run day information on the other tabs, this date is used as the only run date.

If you specify run days on the other tabs, the schedule starts running on the earliest day specified. Therefore, if you want the current date included, specify it as an Include date on the Specific Dates tab.

Schedule recurs every

Enable this option to have the snapshot schedule continue to recur. Otherwise the schedule applies only for one day.

Specify the number of days before restarting the snapshot schedule.

For example, 1 day would mean the schedule takes effect daily, 2 days would mean every other day.

Start On

If you specify the Every option, specify the starting date.

Optionally make selections on the Week Days, Days of Month, and Specific Dates tabs as follows:

Week Days

Select one or more days on one or more weeks of the month.

You can click a button at the top of the column to select the entire column or a button to the left of a row to select the entire row. For example, clicking 1st schedules the snapshots to occur on the first occurrence of all the week days for the month.

Days of Month

Select one or more days of the month. You can also specify the last day of the month.

Specific Dates

Select one or more specific dates to include in or to exclude from the schedule.

Excluding a date takes precedence over days scheduled on the other tabs. For example, if you schedule every Monday on the Days of Week tab, and you exclude Monday October 9 on the Specific Dates tab, the snapshots are not taken on October 9.

If two schedules for the same snapshot set overlap for the same snapshot, only one snapshot is taken. For example, if you select every Thursday plus the last day of the month, and the last day of the month occurs on Thursday, only one snapshot is taken on Thursday.