Configuring Backups Using Veritas Netbackup with AGs

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Configuring Backups Using Veritas Netbackup with AGs

Kenneth Igiri

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July 18, 2017 at 12:03 am

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Comments posted to this topic are about the item Configuring Backups Using Veritas Netbackup with AGs
Br. Kenneth Igiri
https://kennethigiri.com
All nations come to my light, all kings to the brightness of my rising

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PAH-440118 Ten Centuries Points: 1292 More actions · Answer 1

I manage several SQL server availability groups using Netbackup but do not use this technique. As we use FULL, Differential and Transaction Log backups we have to backup the primary replicas. I back up each node individually with a BCH file which excludes all databases which are READ ONLY mode as these are the secondary replicas. The system databases are always available for backup on every node. I have written a PowerShell script which interrogates the SQL instances and writes a BCH file which works for the node with its current Availability Group configuration. This is set to backup ALL databases but then has additional exclude lines for all the read only database. I get this to run by using an event based trigger which is initiated whenever a failover event is logged in the windows Event Log. I also get the same event to initiate a FULL backup after the BCH file has been created.
N.B. I do have a SQL instance with 4 nodes running multiple instances and 100+ databases and multiple Availability groups. There are frequent transaction log backup in addition to the full and differential backups. In this situation, when trying to perform a restore, using the GUI, we found that using Netbackup is impractical. If you have a environment like this I suggest you extensively test to ensure it performs as you would want. This testing should be done after you have a few weeks of backup history as it appear the processing of significant backup records slows down the GUI.

Kenneth Igiri SSCertifiable Points: 5001 More actions · Answer 2

PAH-440118 - Tuesday, July 18, 2017 2:24 AM
I manage several SQL server availability groups using Netbackup but do not use this technique. As we use FULL, Differential and Transaction Log backups we have to backup the primary replicas. I back up each node individually with a BCH file which excludes all databases which are READ ONLY mode as these are the secondary replicas. The system databases are always available for backup on every node. I have written a PowerShell script which interrogates the SQL instances and writes a BCH file which works for the node with its current Availability Group configuration. This is set to backup ALL databases but then has additional exclude lines for all the read only database. I get this to run by using an event based trigger which is initiated whenever a failover event is logged in the windows Event Log. I also get the same event to initiate a FULL backup after the BCH file has been created.
N.B. I do have a SQL instance with 4 nodes running multiple instances and 100+ databases and multiple Availability groups. There are frequent transaction log backup in addition to the full and differential backups. In this situation, when trying to perform a restore, using the GUI, we found that using Netbackup is impractical. If you have a environment like this I suggest you extensively test to ensure it performs as you would want. This testing should be done after you have a few weeks of backup history as it appear the processing of significant backup records slows down the GUI.

Sounds superb.

Br. Kenneth Igiri
https://kennethigiri.com
All nations come to my light, all kings to the brightness of my rising

lazario Valued Member Points: 70 More actions · Answer 3

Hi, I have a question regarding Veritas Netbackup posibilities. We have a lot of servers but not yet AG or complex setups, just VM with Sql-Server from 2008 to 2016. All backups are handled by Netbackup.
One of the servers has a 700 GB database, user deleted 5 tables by mistake... This is sort of an ETL server and the user has access to create and delete files.
The Netbackup administrator told us that to recover this 5 tables he needs to restore all the database, can you confirm ?

Thank you

PAH-440118 Ten Centuries Points: 1292 More actions · Answer 4

Hi Lazario,
I am not aware of a way to restore only specific tables using Netbackup. If I needed to do this I would usually perform a restore with move (creating a copy of the database from the backup) to a new database name. This would allow me to check all is in order with the restored copy before doing anything else. Once this has been completed, I can then move the tables from the restored database to the production database. If all is in order the restored copy can then be dropped.
I hope this helps.

lazario Valued Member Points: 70 More actions · Answer 5

PAH-440118 - Tuesday, August 8, 2017 1:29 AM
Hi Lazario,
I am not aware of a way to restore only specific tables using Netbackup. If I needed to do this I would usually perform a restore with move (creating a copy of the database from the backup) to a new database name. This would allow me to check all is in order with the restored copy before doing anything else. Once this has been completed, I can then move the tables from the restored database to the production database. If all is in order the restored copy can then be dropped.
I hope this helps.

Yes, we are using the same procedure. I thought that Netbackup perhaps had this functionality but our administrator confirmed with Veritas that it doesn't. Thank you