July 16, 2009 at 8:32 am
Anybody using commvault for near-line and tape backups? It's entirely possible the systems team member scheduling Commvault backups of the sql backups does not have enough training. What we''e getting is indications that the files recovered from tape are ***incomplete*** when running restore headeronly and "invalid microsoft tape format" plus "the backup data at the end of
July 16, 2009 at 12:42 pm
I can see your DR exercise paid off.
By the way, I think that's a good question for the vendor.
_____________________________________
Pablo (Paul) Berzukov
Author of Understanding Database Administration available at Amazon and other bookstores.
Disclaimer: Advice is provided to the best of my knowledge but no implicit or explicit warranties are provided. Since the advisor explicitly encourages testing any and all suggestions on a test non-production environment advisor should not held liable or responsible for any actions taken based on the given advice.July 16, 2009 at 1:16 pm
LOL, yes we're another of those firms that started very small with all focus on getting customers and revenue. And where anything other than that is deemed overhead and to be added only at the point of a gun. Well that's my perspective and I realize entrepreneurs have intestinal fortitude I'm lacking so I don't want to be too hard on them.
But once you reach the size where you're getting SAS70 audits and you have large clients storing significant quantities of data on your hardware, stuff like this has to be included in the budget ( DR tests, DR hardware, a DBA and a Systems/Network team that is adequate in size and trained up ).
We're testing today to see if a one-off backup of sql baks to Commvault is useable where we make absolutely sure it goes to Commvault AFTER sql is finished writing the bak. If that's not the problem, then it's time to call the vendor and read the Commvault manual.
I think my view is that reading manuals like that may very well have to be done on your own time -- kind of like a systems guy studying to pass a Cisco exam -- it isn't always going to happen on the company's nickel. But backup software and other things like understanding the programming and proprietary database behind the phone system aren't real popular with many geeks since it may not be transferable to your next job.
June 15, 2010 at 9:33 am
Are the backups going through an Agent on Commvault? Or are these disk files being pulled to tape only?
I would certainly check with CommVault and be sure that you don't have something misconfigured. That being said, I think that agents have, more often than not, worked poorly and led to lots of failures. I've seen this many times. Not with Commvault personally, but with most of the other agents out there.
June 15, 2010 at 10:37 am
These are now backups created with the commvault agents. Our Systems team has taken over all sql backup/restore/disaster recovery for our main production environment. They're learning slowly but are not sql folks, don't want to even open Management Studio and have slight knowledge of recovery models, etc.
June 23, 2010 at 1:10 pm
I am a Sql Server (SS) DBA who now no longer executes SS jobs to do backups of System and User databases. That job is now done by CommVault team. They have loaded iDataAgent (CommVault SQL Agent) onto our VMs and implemented a backup schedule. BUT...how does one check in SS 2005 that CommVault did indeed backup the databases? Or, is that not even possible from the SS side?
June 23, 2010 at 1:34 pm
Commvault does show in the sql log when it does backups etc. You'll see an entry with "virtual device"
Database differential changes were backed up. Database: xxxxx, creation date(time): 2007/10/28(15:47:18), pages dumped: 7288328, first LSN: 1071673:25463:118, last LSN: 1071753:22727:1, full backup LSN: 1068674:5078:264, number of dump devices: 1, device information: (FILE=1, TYPE=VIRTUAL_DEVICE: {'e5c320f4-2776-435f-bd1d-7919022d6088'}). This is an informational message. No user action is required.
June 23, 2010 at 2:00 pm
Thank you for your quick response. I knew about the SQL Logs and the output it generates. Thank you. I guess I am in need of a simple script that could be run to return some of that SQL Log information into a grid within side Management Studio. I'll have to work on that. Again, thanks for your help.
June 23, 2010 at 2:07 pm
I used xp_readerrorlog to create a job that emails me log extracts. But since I'm no longer responsible for backups, restores or disaster recovery, I'm not sure why I bother. I'm expecting that eventually the team now handling commvault will prove they aren't up to it, and those duties will return to database professionals.
June 23, 2010 at 2:17 pm
I could not have said that any better myself. Our CommVault team is two people who just got back from their one week of training. Two days ago I asked a question regarding CommVault's backing up SQL Server, which was received as being a hostile inquiry. The next day I am in a meeting with 15 people having to explain my question. So, cheers to your reply! 😉
Viewing 10 posts - 1 through 9 (of 9 total)
You must be logged in to reply to this topic. Login to reply