Backup Exec Best Practices
- Backup Exec Best Practices
- Best practices for Backup Exec software encryption
- Best practices for Backup Exec installation
- Best practices for Backup Exec tape management
- Best practices for Backup Exec disk-based storage
- Best practices for Backup Exec data lifecycle management (DLM)
- Best practices for Backup Exec catalogs
- Best practices for Backup Exec backups
- Best practices for Backup Exec backing up critical system components
- Best practices for Backup Exec Agent for Microsoft Exchange Server
- Best practices for Backup Exec Agent for Microsoft SQL Server
- Best practices for Backup Exec Agent for Linux
- Best practices for Backup Exec Agent for Microsoft SharePoint
- Best practices for Backup Exec Central Admin Server Option
- Best practices for Backup Exec Agent for Oracle on Windows and Linux Servers
- Best practices for Backup Exec NDMP Option
- Best practices for Backup Exec reports
- Best practices for Backup Exec and LiveUpdate
- Best practices for Backup Exec Simplified Disaster Recovery
- Best practices for Backup Exec Agent for Enterprise Vault and the Backup Exec Migrator
- Best practices for Backup Exec Granular Recovery Technology
- Best practices for Backup Exec Remote Media Agent for Linux
- Best practices for Backup Exec Agent for Microsoft Hyper-V
- Best practices for Backup Exec Agent for VMware
- Best practices for Backup Exec Storage Provisioning Option
- Best practices for using Backup Exec with server clusters
- Best practices for Backup Exec Deduplication Option
- Best practices for using Backup Exec Deduplication Option with the Central Admin Server Option
- Best practices for using hot-pluggable devices such as USB devices in a drive rotation strategy
- Best practices for Backup Exec database encryption keys
- Best Practices for Using the Veritas Backup Exec Cloud Connector
Best practices for Backup Exec Agent for Microsoft SQL Server
Best practices include tips and recommendations to help you use Veritas Backup Exec Agent for Microsoft SQL Server (SQL Agent) effectively. For more information about the SQL Agent, see the Backup Exec Administrator's Guide.
Back up the entire Microsoft SQL Server.
Include the following in the backup job:
Full SQL database backups
Windows System State
System drive backups of the hard drive or drives where Microsoft SQL resides
System drive backups of the hard drive or drives where the Microsoft SQL databases reside
Exclude all database files from an anti-virus scan.
Use database, differential, and log backups to maximize your backup window. Combine these backup methods with backup strategies that address the following issues:
How much data loss can you accept if a failure happens between the time of the last backup and the time the loss occurred?
How many transactions are processed each day?
What are your users' expectations when a recovery is required? For example, do they expect a full recovery to the point at the time when the data loss occurred?
Use only the SQL Agent to perform SQL full, differential, and log backups. If you use a third-party application, Backup Exec makes a new full backup with the SQL Agent.
Run transaction log backups if the database is configured for the full recovery model to prevent unlimited log file growth. Backup Exec generates a success with exception job warning based on the current size of the log file.
With the simple recovery model, copies of the transactions are not stored in the log file, which prevents transaction log backups from being run.
Use snapshot technology with the backup jobs that use deduplication devices.
If you restore a large database that use deduplication devices, ensure that you use the SQL Management Studio to reduce the amount of memory that the SQL instance uses.
Veritas recommends that you run regular database consistency checks to verify the integrity of the database. Run a consistency check either before or after a SQL backup and after a SQL restore. If you back up a database, transaction log, or file group that contains errors, these errors still exist when the backup is restored. In some cases, these errors can prevent a successful restore. Backup Exec lets you check the logical and physical consistency of the data before and after a backup. SQL reports any consistency check failures in the Backup Exec job log.
You should specify the following SQL backup and restore options for the consistency check:
To ensure recovery after a disaster, run periodic test restore jobs and ensure that they are included in your disaster preparation plan.
To ensure recovery from a deduplication device after a disaster, restore the backup set that was created after the baseline deduplication backup set.
Ensure that the Windows user account that you use to back up the SQL instances has System Administrator privileges.
Ensure that Backup Exec has rights to the following registry keys:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Microsoft SQL Server
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\MSSQL