Contents Preparing to create a Microsoft SQL backup policy... 2 Adjusting the SQL max worker threads option... 2 Preparing for Log truncation... 3 Best Practices... 3 Microsoft SQL Server 2005, 2008, or 2008 R2: Backing up the master database... 3 Creating a Microsoft SQL Backup Policy... 4 To create a SQL backup policy, complete the following steps:... 4 Microsoft SQL Server 2000 and 7.x backup with a Standard Policy... 5 Configuring SQL Server Backup... 5 SQL Transaction Log Truncation... 6 SQL Server Backup Utility... 6 Restoring a Microsoft SQL Server policy... 7 Before you begin... 7 Restoring a SQL Policy... 8 Restoring over the Internet... 8 Attaching a database... 10 Restoring from a Restore Device... 10 File Restore of Microsoft SQL Data... 11 Copy database to a new location... 11 Restoring Microsoft SQL Server 2000 and 7.x databases with a Standard Policy... 12 Resolving Short Names... 13 Troubleshooting Microsoft SQL policy issues... 15 General Backup and Restore problems... 15 Restore With Copy aborting with errors... 16 You cannot browse objects when creating a SQL backup policy... 16 Post-restore errors... 17 Truncation Error message... 17 Searching the Event Log for errors... 17 Copyright 2012 ITN Cloud Recover support@cloudrecover.com.au 1
Preparing to create a Microsoft SQL backup policy This topic pertains to Microsoft SQL backup and restore policies, which Cloud Recover supports on SQL Server 2005, 2008, and 2008 R2. Note: To back up SQL Server 2000 or 7.x, you must use a standard backup policy. Before you create a SQL backup policy, be aware of the following conditions: On a SQL Server you can run multiple SQL Server services, each with their own ports, logins, and databases. Each of these services is called an instance. You can further categorize these as the default instance and named instances. This on-line help will use the term instance or SQL Server instance without making a distinction between default instances or named instances. SQL Server instances must be running for a SQL policy to successfully back them up. In SQL 2005, the SQL VSS Writer service is set to Manual by default. Change it to Automatic, and then start it for SQL policies to succeed. To use the transaction log truncation feature, install SQLCMD.exe. It is part of Basic Management Tools in the SQL installation. For SQL backups and restores to succeed on 2-node Windows clusters with multiple instances, all instances must be running on the same cluster node. By default, CloudRecover will back up 75 databases on a 32-bit system and 150 on a 64-bit system. However, you can increase this number to 300 databases on a 32-bit system and 600 databases on a 64-bit system if you adjust the max worker threads to an appropriate value. Adjusting the SQL max worker threads option To adjust the SQL max worker threads to enable the backup of more SQL Server databases, complete the following steps: 1. Launch SQL Management Studio. 2. Provide the server name and login credentials. 3. In the Object Explorer pane, right-click the SQL Server instance that you want to configure. 4. Select Properties from the context menu. 5. Select the Processors page. 6. Type the number of worker threads required to back up your databases. SQL Server requires three worker threads for each database that you want to back up. Do not enter more than 1024 threads on a 32-bit system. 7. Click OK. 8. For these changes to take effect, restart the SQL Server instance. Copyright 2012 ITN Cloud Recover support@cloudrecover.com.au 2
Preparing for Log truncation This option allows SQL to reuse the space consumed by transactions that have already been committed to the database. You should not choose this option if you are using another application besides CloudRecover to manage or backup the transaction logs. If you choose not to use this feature, then transaction logs for any databases using full or bulk-logged recovery models will continue to grow unless they are periodically truncated by some other means. Master databases, model databases, and MSDB will not have their logs truncated. If you plan to truncate logs, you must have the SQLCMD.EXE utility installed. Whichever account you use to run lvbackupservice must have rights to run SQLCMD.EXE. Each SQL database can have its recovery model set to Simple, Bulk, or Full. CloudRecover will protect SQL databases in all combinations of the Recovery Model and the Truncate Logs option the user chooses for those backup policies. In cases where the user sets a policy to Truncate Logs on a database where the Recovery Model is set to Simple, the backup log will contain a warning since CloudRecover cannot truncate the logs on the database. Best Practices On databases where you are using the Simple recovery model, do not set the CloudRecover backup option to truncate logs. On databases where you are using the Bulk or Full recovery models, use the CloudRecover backup option to Truncate Logs, or manage the logs by other means. When a SQL server has multiple databases with different recovery model settings, and you are using CloudRecover to manage the logs, create multiple CloudRecover backup policies for the different databases, each with the appropriate setting for truncating the logs to match the Recovery Model of the databases the policy is protecting. Microsoft SQL Server 2005, 2008, or 2008 R2: Backing up the master database Every instance of Microsoft SQL Server has a master database that contains information about users and databases that are part of the instance. To protect your SQL Server installation, include the master database when you create SQL backup policies. To recover the master database, note the following considerations: You must manually attach any databases you created after CloudRecover backed up the master database. This is because the master database contains information about which databases are part of the instance. If you made any user login changes after CloudRecover backed up the master database, the changes will be lost. You must redo the changes after the restore. Copyright 2012 ITN Cloud Recover support@cloudrecover.com.au 3
Creating a Microsoft SQL Backup Policy If you are backing up SQL Server 2000 or SQL Server 7.x servers, you must use a standard policy. To protect your SQL Server installation, we recommend that you include the master database when using creating SQL backup policies. Every instance of Microsoft SQL Server has a master system database that contains information about users and databases that are part of the instance. When you create policies, confirm the clock time and time zone designation on the Agent machine. If the time or time zone is incorrect, in rare cases it can cause restorations from the initial backup to fail. To create a SQL backup policy, complete the following steps: 1. In the Navigation Pane, select the computer you want to back up. 2. Select the Backup tab. 3. On the Backup tab, click add new SQL Server Policy. The Backup Configuration page opens. 4. In the New Backup Policy field, type a name for the policy. 5. In the left pane, the SQL Server is displayed. SQL objects will not be visible if the SQL Server service is not running for all instances you are attempting to browse. To back up all databases in one or more SQL Server instances: a. In the left pane, select the SQL Server. The right pane displays the SQL Server instances on that server. b. In the right pane, check the box for the SQL Server instance(s) that contain the databases to back up. The policy backs up all the databases in the instance(s) you selected. 6. To back up individual databases in a SQL Server instance: a. In the left pane, click to expand the SQL Server. b. In the left pane, select the SQL Server instance that contains the database(s) to back up. The right pane displays the databases in the selected SQL Server instance. c. In the right pane, check the box for the database(s) to back up. d. In the Schedule tab, create a schedule for the backup policy. 7. In the Options tab, you can enter the name of a script that will be run before or after the backup occurs. 8. Select Truncate transaction logs at the end of a successful backup if you want to truncate the transaction logs. 9. Click Next. The Backup Confirmation page opens. 10. Review the configuration for the policy 11. Click Done. Copyright 2012 ITN Cloud Recover support@cloudrecover.com.au 4
Microsoft SQL Server 2000 and 7.x backup with a Standard Policy If you are backing up SQL Server 2005 or 2008, or 2008 R2 you should use SQL policies to ensure that your data is transactionally safe. However, if you are backing up SQL Server 2000 or SQL Server 7.x servers, you must use standard policies. Although you do not need to create a separate backup policy for your SQL database, you might find it helpful to group all of your SQL database files together. Use the following guidelines when you create a backup policy for Microsoft SQL Server. Configuring SQL Server Backup Create a separate backup policy for SQL Server files if you want an easy way to restore SQL files only, or you need different backup parameters than you have set for other policies. These parameters can include frequency of backup and length of retention rules. To back up a SQL Server, complete the following steps: 1. Create a separate SQL Server database backup policy. 2. Select the directories and volumes that contain the SQL data, transaction logs, and application files. Your directory path can be different from that depicted above; be sure to make the appropriate adjustments. 3. 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. The SQL Server backup directory is specified in the registry key HKLM\Software\Microsoft\MS SQL Server\MSSQL value BackupDirectory 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 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) 4. 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. Copyright 2012 ITN Cloud Recover support@cloudrecover.com.au 5
Important: You must back up the Windows System State 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 Cloud Recover Support 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. Copyright 2012 ITN Cloud Recover support@cloudrecover.com.au 6
Restoring a Microsoft SQL Server policy The procedure in this help topic will help you restore Microsoft SQL Server databases that were backed up with a SQL policy. To restore SQL Server databases backed up with a standard policy, see Microsoft SQL Server Restore with a Standard Policy. Before you begin You should be aware of the following information before you begin to restore SQL Server data: You can restore either the most current version that has been backed up or an historic version. The currency of the "most current version" depends on the schedule for the SQL policy you want to restore. However, in a data corruption event, the most current backed up version may be corrupted. This depends on when the corruption occurred and whether the corrupted data has already been backed up. You may need to perform several restores, current, then historic, until you restore a version from before the corruption occurred. The SQL versions and service packs you restore should be the same versions as the environment to which you are restoring. For information about version compatibility, refer the Microsoft article ms191253.aspx. If you have lost the SQL Server you may need to recover the entire server, which is a disaster recovery. Follow the disaster recovery procedure Recovering a SQL Server with a SQL policy in the LiveVault Disaster Recovery Guide. You should only use this procedure if you are trained and experienced in Microsoft Windows and Microsoft SQL Server. For more information on performing a disaster recovery of a SQL Server, please contact us for a copy of the Live Vault Disaster Recovery Guide If you are restoring SQL Server policies that do not include the master database, the SQL Server instance must be running. If you are restoring SQL Server policies that include the master database, the SQL Server instance must be shutdown. After the restore is completed, you can start the instance and SQL Server will read the database and user information from the restored version of the master database. You can restore the master database as a normal user database under a new name using the Restore Copy option. You should leave the instance running under this scenario. The master database contains information about users and databases that are part of that SQL Server instance. You may restore other databases at the same time you are restoring master, but if they did not exist at the time the backup was created you must manually attach them. You can restore a SQL Server database to its original location, or copy it to a new location. Copyright 2012 ITN Cloud Recover support@cloudrecover.com.au 7
o If you restore to the original location and the selected databases do not exist, the files will be restored to their original location and the databases will be automatically attached to the server instance. If the selected databases do exist, the files will be overwritten. o If you restore a SQL Server database to a different location, the files will be restored to the new location and the database will be automatically attached to the SQL Server instance under the new name you assign to it. The database files themselves are not renamed. If the original database still exists, the files must be restored to a different location than the original. You can restore the master database as a normal user database under a new name using the Restore Copy option. You should leave the instance running under this scenario. Restoring a SQL Policy To restore a SQL policy, complete the following steps: 1. In the CloudRecover Web Management Portal Navigation Pane, select the SQL policy that originally had the data that you are restoring. 2. Select the Restore tab. 3. Click New Restore. 4. The Restore Wizard opens. 5. In the Restore Wizard, select a delivery choice: a. Restore data over the Internet Note: Select the Internet restore delivery option if you know that you have sufficient bandwidth and the connection stability to restore your data. b. Have Media Device Shipped to you Depending on the amount of data you have to restore, if you request a device before 10 a.m., it can ship as early as the next business day. Restores larger than 100 GB can ship on the second business day (Mon-Fri). Restores larger than 500 GB can ship the second or third business day. Typically you pay a fee for a Media Device restore. The system displays a form for you to select the version of data to restore, and the shipping method. When you click Next, the Restore Wizard Shipping Information form opens, requesting the address for shipment of the appliance. When the restore device arrives, you attach it to your network. You can then restore the backed-up files. Restoring over the Internet If you selected Restore Data over the Internet in Step 4 above, the What would you like to restore page opens. Copyright 2012 ITN Cloud Recover support@cloudrecover.com.au 8
To restore over the Internet, complete the following steps: 1. Check SQL Server, and then click Next. 2. In the Name to use for this restore request box, type a name for the restore job. 3. From the Policy filter menu, select the policy that you want to restore. 4. From the Version menu, select the backup version from which you want to restore the databases. The most recent version is selected by default. 5. Browse and select the Microsoft SQL objects from the object view of your SQL Server's backed up file structure. 6. To continue creating the restore policy, click Next. 7. To select other types of restore, see the options below: a. To perform a file restore, click the Options tab, and then skip to File Restore of Microsoft SQL Data. b. To copy a database to a different location, click the Options tab, then skip to Copy database to a new location. c. If you included the Master database in your restore policy, note the following considerations: o In the Windows Services manager on the agent, you must stop the associated SQL Server instance service or the restore will fail. The only exception is if you are copying the master database as a normal user database under a new name. In that scenarios, you should leave the instance running. o You must manually attach any databases you created after CloudRecover backed up the server. o You must redo any user login changes you made after CloudRecover backed up the server. o You may restore other databases at the same time you are restoring master, but if they did not exist at the time the backup was created then you must manually attach them. For more information see Attaching a database. o When you restore the master database to a clustered server, bring the SQL Server resource offline. 8. Review the information in the Restore Request Confirmation page. 9. Do one of the following: a. To accept the restore request and start the restore process, click Done. b. To make changes to the restore request, click Previous. When you click Done, CloudRecover starts to process the restore request. When restoring a SQL 2005 database with full-text catalogs, you must rebuild the catalogs after the restore. To do this, right-click the catalogs in SQL Management Studio and select Rebuild. 1. Expand the storage folder. 2. Right-click the catalog Copyright 2012 ITN Cloud Recover support@cloudrecover.com.au 9
3. Select rebuild 4. Click Yes to delete the full-text catalog and rebuild it Attaching a database Occasionally you might have database files available on your system and want to attach the database to a SQL Server instance so you can start to use it. To attach a database, you can use the CREATE DATABASE command or complete the following steps: 1. Launch SQL Management Studio. 2. Provide the server name and login credentials 3. In the Object Explorer pane, locate the Databases folder, and then right-click it. 4. Select Attach from the context menu. 5. To locate the.mdf file for the database, click Add. 6. Click OK. Restoring from a Restore Device If you selected Have Media Device Shipped to you, the Restore Wizard begins. It starts with the task of naming the new restore job. 1. Suspend backup on the policies for which you are restoring data. 2. Type a name for the new restore request in the Name for this restore request field. 3. From the Restore as of menu, choose the date and time of policy backups that you want to restore. When the restore device arrives, and you attach it to your network, you can select files from a backup version from a time on or before the date and time that you specified on the Restore as of menu. 4. From the Ship Via drop-down list, select a shipping method. 5. Click Next. The Shipping Information page opens. 6. Type your shipping information in the fields provided, and then click Next. 7. Review the information in the Computer Restore Confirmation form. 8. If you did not disable backup policies in step 1, check Disable SQL backup policies. 9. Choose one of the following actions: a. To accept the restore request and start the restore process, click Done. b. To make changes to or cancel the restore request, click Previous. When you click Done, CloudRecover processes the restore request. You can track its progress in CloudRecover Web Management Portal. 10. When your storage device arrives, you can restore the entire database for the date you selected or restore individual Microsoft SQL Server databases. Copyright 2012 ITN Cloud Recover support@cloudrecover.com.au 10
File Restore of Microsoft SQL Data 1. On the Options tab, select File Restore. 2. If this restore is part of a Disaster Recovery, select Overwrite existing file even if restored file is older and Overwrite open files when the computer is rebooted. 3. If this is a redirected restore to a different location on the disk, or to a different server, complete the following steps: a. Select the box Redirect restored data to a different computer b. Type a location c. Select the box Redirect restored files to a different location d. Click Next. 4. If this is a redirected restore, see the topic Redirecting Restored Files on Windows. 5. Select your other preferences, and click Done. Copy database to a new location To copy a database to a different location, note the following considerations: When copying a database to a clustered server, you must restore to one of the shared drives owned by the SQL Server instance. When copying a SQL 2005 database with full-text catalogs, you must rebuild the catalogs after the restore. To do this, right-click the catalogs in SQL Management Studio and select Rebuild. 1. Expand the storage folder. 2. Right-click the catalog 3. Select rebuild 4. Click Yes to delete the full-text catalog and rebuild it To copy a database to a different location, click the Options tab, and complete the following steps: 1. On the Options tab, select Restore database copy with new name. 2. Type a location for the database copy in the New directory path field. 3. Type a name for the new database in the New database name field. This name cannot be the same as any existing database in that SQL Server instance. 4. Click Next to continue. Return to step 9 in the procedure Restoring via the Internet. Copyright 2012 ITN Cloud Recover support@cloudrecover.com.au 11
Restoring Microsoft SQL Server 2000 and 7.x databases with a Standard Policy If you backed up your SQL Server database(s) with SQL policies, you should restore them with SQL policies. However, if you backed up your SQL Server database(s) with standard policies, you use this procedure to restore them. If you backed up a SQL Server 2000 or SQL Server 7.x server, you had to use a standard policy, since SQL policies are not supported for those versions of SQL Server. Use the following procedure as a guideline for restoring a Microsoft SQL Server after a data corruption event. Depending on the type of corruption event you have, you can restore the most current copy of the backed-up data or a historic version of the data. The recommended procedure is to restore the most recent copy of the data first. This ensures the least amount of data loss. However, in a data corruption event, the most current backed-up version can be corrupted. This depends on when the corruption occurred and whether the corrupted data has already been backed up. You might need to perform several restores until you restore a version from before the corruption occurred. Only personnel with training and experience in Windows and SQL Server should implement these procedures. To restore a SQL Server, complete the following steps: 1. Stop the SQL service. 2. Follow the steps in Requesting a Restore to restore SQL Server using LiveVault Web Management Portal. When you request the restore, you must to do the following steps: When specifying the files and directories to restore, ensure that you select all the files comprising the SQL Server. If you are restoring a large amount of data or an entire computer, the Restore Wizard lets you have a Restore Device shipped to you. If you choose Internet delivery, set the following in the Options tab of the Restore Request page: o Select Restore the Original Backup Security Attributes. o Select Auto-rename the existing file. Copyright 2012 ITN Cloud Recover support@cloudrecover.com.au 12
Important: When you restore files or directories, select Auto-rename the existing file for the greatest flexibility. However, you must have sufficient disk space for both copies of each file. If you do not have sufficient disk space, the restore will fail. If sufficient disk space is not available, you can use one of the overwrite options (for example, Always overwrite existing file with restored file). However, you cannot retrieve an overwritten file except by restoring another version. 3. If your data is sent on a Restore Device, after you receive the device with your restored data, see Restoring Your Data From a Restore Device to restore the data to your computer. During the restore, set the following restore options: Select Restore the Original Backup Security Attributes. Select Auto-rename the existing file. Important: When you restore files or directories, select Auto-rename the existing file for the greatest flexibility. However, you must have sufficient disk space for both copies of each file. If you do not have sufficient disk space, the restore will fail. If sufficient disk space is not available, you can use one of the overwrite options (for example, Always overwrite existing file with restored file). However, you cannot retrieve an overwritten file except by restoring another version. 4. After the restore is complete, restart the SQL service. It should recover itself from the data provided in the restore. 5. Verify that the restore succeeded. For example, check that your database is no longer corrupted. If you must restore a different version, perform this procedure again with an older version. 6. If SQL fails to restart, it might be due to Microsoft's use of short names to configure the service. See below. Resolving Short Names If the service fails to restart following a restore, make a note of the destination folder from which the.exe is trying to launch, complete the following steps: 1. Open a command prompt. 2. List all folders with Microsoft short names similar to the one for which SQL is searching. Two folders concern you: the short name folder that Windows thinks contains the SQL executable, and the short name folder that actually contains the executable. 3. Temporarily rename the folder that actually contains the SQL executable. For example, rename "Micros~1" to "Temp_Micros~1." This will force Windows to reassign a new short name to that folder. 4. Temporarily rename the folder that Windows thinks contains the SQL executable. For example, rename "Micros~4" to "Temp_Micros~4." This will force Windows to reassign a Copyright 2012 ITN Cloud Recover support@cloudrecover.com.au 13
new short name to that folder, which should reestablish the proper sequence of short names, so that SQL can find the correct folder and execute. 5. Rename the folder that contains the executable back to its original name. Windows will dynamically reassign the proper short name to this folder. 6. Rename the other folder back to its original name. Windows will dynamically reassign another short name to this folder. Copyright 2012 ITN Cloud Recover support@cloudrecover.com.au 14
Troubleshooting Microsoft SQL policy issues Consult this page if you are experiencing difficulties creating or running Microsoft SQL backup and restore policies. This topic pertains to SQL backup and restore policies, which LiveVault supports on SQL Server 2005, 2008, and 2008 R2. To back up SQL Server 2000 or 7.x, you must use a standard backup policy. General Backup and Restore problems If your backups or restores are unsuccessful, it may be that LiveVault is unable to contact the SQL Writer or the SQL Server Service. If any of the following conditions occur, verify whether the SQL Server service is running: For new agents without SQL backup policies, you might not be presented with the option to add a new SQL Server backup policy. When browsing the server while editing or creating a SQL backup policy, you may receive an error that the Web UI cannot communicate with the agent. Existing backup or restore policies may fail. You will receive errors in the Web UI and/or through email. If the agent has active SQL backup policies, and the SQL Writer is disabled, you will receive an email notification. To verify that the SQL Server VSS Writer is present, enabled, and running, complete the following steps: 1. Click Start >> Control Panel >> Administrative Tools >> Services, or from a command line, type services.msc. 2. Locate the service called SQL Server VSS Writer. If this entry is missing, you must use your Microsoft SQL Server installation media to install this component to enable SQL backups and restores. 3. Verify that the service s Startup Type is set to Automatic. To change the service's startup mode, complete the following steps: a. Right-click the service b. Select Properties c. Set the Startup type to Automatic. d. Click OK. 4. Verify that the service s status is set to Started from the popup menu.. If the service is not running, right-click the service and choose Start Copyright 2012 ITN Cloud Recover support@cloudrecover.com.au 15
5. If LiveVault still cannot contact SQL Writer, it may be that one or more of the selected databases have leading or trailing whitespace in their name. This is due to a Microsoft bug. For more information, see http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2014054. To verify that the SQL Server service is started, complete the following steps: 1. Locate the service called SQL Server. Each SQL Server instance has its own SQL Server process, so verify that the service is running for the database or instance you are attempting to browse. 2. Verify that the service s status is set to Started. 3. If the service is not running, right-click the service and choose Start from the popup menu. If this service was not started, it will now be detected the next time a SQL backup occurs or in 20 minutes, whichever comes first. Restore With Copy aborting with errors If a restore with copy is aborting with errors, it might be caused by a double backslash in the directory path of the database being restored. To check for this condition, on the database open SQL Server Management Studio and run the SQL query: select filename from sysfiles The following is an example of the problem, where there is a double-backslash in the path. C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL.4\MSSQL\DATA\\Databasename.mdf C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL.4\MSSQL\DATA\\Databasename_1.LDF The database could end up in this state from a SQL restore from a backup file which specifies new paths for the database files. To correct the problem, remove one of the backslashes, leaving a single backslash. You cannot browse objects when creating a SQL backup policy The most likely causes of this are the following: The SQL Writer is not communicating. Copyright 2012 ITN Cloud Recover support@cloudrecover.com.au 16
The SQL Server for that instance is not running, or not communicating. Each SQL instance has its own service name, so verify that the service is running for the database or instance you are attempting to browse. The service name will be in the format MSSQL$[NamedInstance] for named instances, or MSSQLSERVER for a default, unnamed instance. After the SQL Server is started, it will be detected after the next backup or in 20 minutes, whichever comes first. A new database was created, which LiveVault does not detect yet. The database will become visible after the next backup or in 20 minutes, whichever comes first. To make the database visible immediately, restart the backup service on the LiveVault agent. Post-restore errors Post-restore errors occur when the database files were restored successfully, but LiveVault encountered an error when trying to communicate with SQL Server to finish the restore, for example, when the SQL Writer service is stopped before the restore can finish. If an error occurs during post-restore processing, check the SQL Server instance to see if all of the restored databases are part of the instance. If any are missing, you must manually attach the databases, or redo the restore. A second restore should run quickly. In some cases, databases are stuck in a Restoring state. In this case you must manually detach the databases before reattaching or redoing the restore. To manually detach a database, you can run a system stored procedure with the following syntax: sp_detach_db @dbname='database_name' Truncation Error message If you checked the box Truncate transaction logs at the end of a successful backup on the Options tab, you may receive an error message "LiveVault encountered an error while attempting to truncate the transaction logs." To diagnose the cause of this error, search the event logs and the LiveVault logs directory. Searching the Event Log for errors When searching the event log to evaluate your SQL environment, be aware of the following messages: Event Source Event ID Event Type Notes SQLVDI 1 Error You might see this error in the application event log when using LiveVault with SQL Copyright 2012 ITN Cloud Recover support@cloudrecover.com.au 17
Server 2005. This message is logged in error and backups will still succeed. To stop the message from appearing in the event log, apply the hotfix described in the Microsoft article KB934396. SQLWRITER 24583 Error You might see this error if the account under which the SQL Writer service runs does not have access to the SQL Server instance, or if you didn't shut down the Master database and all SQL instances containing databases you were attempting to restore. Either change the account under which the service runs, or ensure the account has sufficient rights to connect to the server instance. Refer to the Microsoft article KB919023 for more information. VSS 6013 Error You might see this error if the account under which the SQL Writer service runs does not have privileges to query the system databases that are necessary to perform a backup. You must ensure the service s account has the permissions necessary. Refer to the Copyright 2012 ITN Cloud Recover support@cloudrecover.com.au 18
MSSQL (Instance Name) Microsoft article KB919023 for more information. 17202 Error You might see this error while using LiveVault to backup SQL Server 2005. As noted in the Microsoft article KB970878, there is no hotfix to stop the event messages from being logged, but the backups and SQL Server should run without problems. Copyright 2012 ITN Cloud Recover support@cloudrecover.com.au 19