Microsoft SQL Server Backup with a Standard Backup Policy

If you are backing up SQL Server 2005 or later, use SQL policies to ensure that your data is transactionally safe.

However, if you are older versions of SQL Server, you must use standard policies. Although you do not need to create a separate backup policy for your SQL database, LiveVault recommends that you group all of your SQL database files together.

Configure SQL Server Backup with a Standard Policy

Create a separate backup policy for SQL database files to restore the database files only.

To back up a SQL Server with a standard backup policy

  1. Select the volumes and directories that contain the database files, transaction logs, and application files.

  2. Exclude the SQL Server backup directories and their subdirectories.

    • In the tree view on the Selection tab, you will see the icon for the automatically excluded directory and subdirectories.

    • For SQL Server 7.0 this is commonly C:\SQL\Backup.

    • For SQL Server 2000 this is commonly C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\mssql\backup

    • The SQL Server backup directory is specified in the registry key HKLM\Software\Microsoft\MS SQL Server\MSSQL value BackupDirectory.

      For example, if the BackupDirectory value is C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\mssql\backup, create the following exclusion rule:

      Exclude C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\mssql\backup\* (Subdirectories Yes)

  1. Typically, you set your schedule to continuous backup so that your changes are always being backed up. However, you can set any schedule you want.

Important: You must back up the Windows System State and system volume for your computer. If you do not back it up, you will not be able to perform a disaster recovery, and you might not be able to restore your databases or applications.

SQL Transaction Log Truncation

Unlike traditional backup products, the LiveVault backup technology does not rely upon the SQL standard logging to ensure complete and accurate backups or restores. Therefore, LiveVault does not truncate or remove the SQL logs.

You must truncate the log so that the computer does not run out of disk space. For example, you may set up SQL maintenance to truncate the transaction logs each day or set the SQL database recovery model to Simple. Refer to your SQL documentation for information about truncating the transaction logs. If you require assistance, contact Customer Service.

SQL Server Backup Utility

Do not use LiveVault to back up the SQL backup files. Each time you perform a SQL backup to disk (using the SQL backup utility), the SQL backup files change 100%. If the SQL backup files are included for backup by LiveVault, then LiveVault will back up those full files each time you perform a SQL backup. This will consume a significant amount of bandwidth, which can affect backup performance.

Depending on the size of the SQL backup files, the amount of SQL and other data you are also backing up, and the speed of your Internet connection, the additional load of backing up the SQL backup files could possibly prevent your other data from being backed up in an acceptable amount of time. Also, this additional backup load is redundant, as you are already backing up your SQL data with LiveVault.

However, if you choose to back up the SQL backup files, contact Customer Service for assistance identifying the amount of bandwidth that you need for successful backup. If your Internet connection can handle the increased data, you can create a separate backup configuration for the SQL backup directories and schedule it to run after your SQL backup utility completes. This method will have less impact on the backup of your SQL data and other data.