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NetBackup™ for Microsoft SQL Server Administrator's Guide

Last Published: 2024-09-30

Product(s): NetBackup & Alta Data Protection (10.5)

Create a protection plan to protect SQL Server data with a VMware backup

Through a VMware backup policy, NetBackup can create full application-consistent backups of the SQL Server databases that reside on a virtual machine. Optionally you can use NetBackup Accelerator. VMware policies let you exclude certain virtual disks from the VMware backup. If you want to exclude specific SQL Server components, use a MS-SQL-Server policy.

Note that before you create a protection plan, you must perform additional configuration requirements:

Configure all storage options.
Configure the logon account for the NetBackup services.
See Configure the NetBackup services for SQL Server backups and restores.
See Configure local security privileges for SQL Server.
Review the auto-discovered mappings for the hosts in your environment.
This action requires the Default Security Administrator role or a role with similar RBAC permissions.

To create a protection plan to protect SQL Server data with a VMware backup

Configure the storage for the backup.
On the left, select Protection > Protection plans and then click Add.
In Basic properties, enter a Name, Description.
From the Workload list, select VMware.
(Optional) Indicate a Policy name prefix to append to the policy name. NetBackup automatically creates a policy when users subscribe assets to this protection plan.
In Schedules and retention, click Add schedule.
- In the Attributes tab, select the Full backup type.
- In the Start window tab, define the window during which the backup can start.
- Click Save after all options are selected in the Attributes and the Start window tabs.
- Review the Backup schedule preview window and verify that all schedules are set correctly.
See Schedules.

In the Storage options, select the storage to use for the backup.

A protection plan can only use the storage that a NetBackup 8.1.2 or newer media server can access.

Storage option	Requirements	Description
Backup storage	OpenStorage is required for this option. Tape, storage unit groups, and Replication Director are not supported.	Click Edit. Select the storage target then click Use selected storage.

In Backup options, review the available options for the backup.
See Backup options and Advanced options.
Under Allow restore of application data from virtual machine backups, select Microsoft SQL Server.
Do not enable Truncate logs at this time. You must first perform a full backup without log truncation, described later in this procedure.
(Conditional) Select Enable T-SQL snapshots.
This snapshot type creates a full SQL Server backup (not copy-only) that can be used as a basis for SQL Server incremental and transaction log backups. For this snapshot type, the only valid option for snapshot handling is Stop the backup if any snapshots exist, which is automatically selected.
Note: T-SQL snapshots were added with SQL Server 2022 and are strongly recommended for systems with SQL Server 2022 or later. This type of snapshot is not supported with SQL Server 2019 and earlier.
In Permissions, review the roles that have access to protection plans.
To give another role access to this protection plan, click Add. Select the Role in the table and customize the role by adding or removing permissions in the Select permissions section.
See Configure RBAC.
In Review, verify that the protection plan details are correct and click Save.
If you do not want to truncate transaction logs, no further action is necessary.
If you want to truncate transaction logs, continue with step 14.
Perform a full backup without log truncation.
When the backup completes, open the policy that you created in step 2.
Click the VMware tab.
Locate Allow restore of application data from virtual machine backups and click Microsoft SQL Server. Then click Truncate logs.
For SQL Server, this option truncates the transaction logs when the VMware snapshot of the virtual machine is complete.
Click Save to save the protection plan.
Perform a full VMware backup.