April 21, 2020 at 6:17 pm
I am configuring Always on AG and it will have only one secondary replica which is used for reporting. I am thinking the backups are not needed for secondary replica because it is only used for reporting. So in case of server issue the secondary replica can be reconfigured using primary backup and reconfigure the AG. Do you agree with me? Any issues you can think off not having server level backups or snapshots? Thanks in Advance!
April 22, 2020 at 7:10 pm
Thanks for posting your issue and hopefully someone will answer soon.
This is an automated bump to increase visibility of your question.
April 23, 2020 at 11:38 am
I think you are asking about SQL data backups only rather than backups of the server configuration (by that I mean the operating system, cluster configuration e.t.c). In which case my answer is in two parts:
Firstly: There are more experienced DBA's but from my understanding, and experience of, availability groups (2-3 years experience) you can't lose SQL data by only backing up the primary. The secondary replicas are always read only.
Secondly: A bit of a disclaimer - Whatever setup you choose - test it, particularly your backups and restores. Whilst forum answers are provided with good intent forum posters can't know everything about your setup. If you get problems during the testing, or you would appreciate thoughts on your testing plan, then people will probably be able to help with that.
Incidentally - I've never used secondary replicas (I was using 2016 Standard Edition) but I think you are limited to the types of backup you can take on the secondary. More details here https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/database-engine/availability-groups/windows/active-secondaries-backup-on-secondary-replicas-always-on-availability-groups?view=sql-server-ver15
Something that might be useful, depending on your environment, is to have a backup strategy that runs automatically on whichever server is the primary. I had my servers setup so that the backups, index optimisation e.t.c. ran automatically on whichever server was the primary. I didn't want a situation where it was possible to switch servers and forget to enable the backups on the new primary particularly as I had automatic failover switched on.
I've answered your question purely in terms of SQL backups. If you haven't already you may want to think about having a backup of the secondary server for the following reasons:
The availability group will only replicate items at a database level. Anything configured at a SQL server level won't be replicated.
If you haven't already you may wish to have a backup of the operating system and cluster setup so that you don't have to recreate them , from the start, if you get a problem with the operating system or hardware (be that virtual or physical).
As I said there are more experienced DBA's so some may disagree with what I've written. If there are any questions on the above then I will try and help.
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