October 25, 2011 at 5:01 am
Hi,
We have an ongoing battle with our Infrastructure Architect, where they would like to incorporate all SQL Backups in the same solution as the server and filesystem backups which uses Commvault Simpana 9.
Our current SQL backups are backed up by the native SQL backups, and then bak file backups taken by Commvault.
In the past we attempted to use Commvault 7 with both SQL and Oracle, however this was a nightmare experience where servers ground to a halt, and restores would fail. I am being reassured that the newest versions is a lot better and we would not experience the same issues.
I along with the Oracle DBA's are very skeptical by this statement due to past issues, and in our experience have found no 3rd party app that better backsup SQL/Oracle than the inbuilt tools.
Has anyone had expereince of using Commvault Simpana 9, and can offer any feedback on experiences?
Thanks
April 16, 2013 at 8:58 am
I am curious if you received any feedback on this question and did you implement the Simpana solution? We are looking at using Simpana 10 and I am the DBA for SQL Server and Oracle and would like to hear from some real-world experience.
April 17, 2013 at 7:17 am
Hi,
We created a test lab for both SQL and Oracle using Simpana 9, during the tests we had problems with regards to restoring TDE databases on both Oracle and SQL. Also point in time recovery tended to be hit and miss.
It seemed fine if doing a full nightly backup so we put this on our Tier 3 VM SQL databases, but we experienced problems as seperate team controls the backups and we wern't being alerted on backup failure's. Typically the times we needed to restore were on these occasions.
We have sinced backed up all Oracle and SQL backups to the Tier 1/2 procedure using the Native Tools along with Siampana to backup these individual backup files. We only keep a weeks worth on local/SAN storage. We have found this to be easier and quicker for DB Backup and restores.
August 14, 2015 at 9:04 am
Good job fighting off those backup admins who go for "simple" and "easy" rather than "right" !
At my new place we use Simpana 10 and boy the current admins defend it saying how fast and easy it is. the commserv needs patches and backups fail sometime. Most times it runs okay. But to tell you the truth I do not like it at all. It updates MSDB backup history (of course coz it's just running TSQL ) to be successful and there are no backup files. Well you the dba better get used to checking and knowing commvault report (just look for backups completed with errors) coz commvault may have had problems *writing* the backup file (Not .bak file mind you..it has it's own proprietary backup file). I mean I am not saying native guarantees if msdb shows backup successful the file would be on disk - but I just feel much more confident with native !
September 1, 2015 at 11:46 am
The problem is when CV has issues and it will have issues at some point usually on a weekend or Holiday - for example the MediaAgent is down or tape drives crap out, no spare scratch tapes in the library etc... = No DB BACKUPS.
If CV is doing TLog backups too then your Log Files autogrow (if enabled) and you could fill up the disk grinding your DB to a halt. Then you have to go shrink all of the TLogs back down to size AFTER you finally get them backed up again. You can point the finger at the backup guys; however, ensuring the recoverability of the DBs are still the responsibility of the DBA...
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