Administrator Guide

This error will not prevent backup jobs from completing successfully and it can be safely ignored.

Additional Information on Using Replay Manager with Hyper_V

For further information on how Hyper-V integrates with Replay Manager, see the Dell Storage Center

Replay Manager 7 and Microsoft Hyper-V Best Practices Guide.

Microsoft SQL Server

Replay Manager supports backing up and restoring data for Microsxoft SQL Server 2016, Microsoft SQL

Server 2014, Microsoft SQL Server 2012, Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2, and Microsoft SQL Server 2008.

General Guidelines for Microsoft SQL Server

For all versions of Microsoft SQL Server, follow these general guidelines for backing up and restoring

data.

• Use the Replay Manager SQL Databases backup extension (do not use the Local Volumes backup

extension): The Local Volumes Extension allows an administrator to select entire volumes when

defining a backup set. Each database stored on the selected volumes will wait for the current process

to finish before temporarily halting further operations, provided that all volumes used by the database

are included in the backup set. However, you should use the SQL Databases backup extension for

volumes containing SQL Server databases because it provides an enhanced backup and recovery

process for the administrator. Some recovery features are only available through the SQL Databases

backup extension.

• Determine optimal selections for database backup sets: The administrator must determine the

optimal configuration of backup sets and backup job schedules based on the site environment. Replay

Manager allows multiple databases within one backup set. However, for databases with high IO traffic,

Dell recommends that an administrator include only one database per backup set. Microsoft

recommends that an administrator create a backup set of fewer than 35 databases to prevent

problems with VSS timeouts and other related errors. For more information, see

support.microsoft.com/kb/943471.

NOTE: A backup includes all files on the volume (or volumes) used by the selected databases,

including database files for databases that are not selected. However, unselected databases are

not quiesced by VSS before the snapshot is taken. If backup sets are consistently excluding

databases on a given set of volumes, consider moving the excluded databases onto a separate

set of volumes to reduce the size of the Replays.

• Back up the system databases: If you need to recover an entire SQL Server instance, you must have

access to the system databases. The standard system databases include master, model, and msdb.

Each of these databases plays an important role in the operation of a SQL Server instance. All system

databases are created under the SQL Server installation path, which by default is the boot volume.

System databases should reside on a SAN volume so they can be included as part of a regular backup

set in Replay Manager. Use snapshots of the system databases to perform a full SQL Server instance

recovery.

Restoring a Microsoft SQL Server Database with No Recovery

Use the Do Not Recover Databases option when restoring a Microsoft SQL Server database to leave the

database in an unrecoverable state. An administrator can subsequently perform additional restores of the

transaction log and/or differential database backups to the restored database.

For complete information on backup and restore strategies for Microsoft SQL Server databases, see

technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms152560.aspx.