Users Guide

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 conguration 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 trac, 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 les on the volume (or volumes) used by the selected databases, including database les 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 dierential 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.

Protect Microsoft SQL Server 2016, Microsoft SQL Server

2014 or Microsoft SQL Server 2012 AlwaysOn Availability

Groups

Replay Manager can be used to back up databases that belong to an AlwaysOn Availability Group. However, a database cannot be restored

while it is part of an Availability Group. Just as with native Microsoft SQL Server restores, a database must be removed from the Availability

Group before it can be restored with Replay Manager.

1 Remove the database from the Availability Group.

2 Restore the database using Replay Manager.

3 Remove any existing replica databases.

4 Add the database back into the Availability Group.

5 Start data synchronization to the replica databases, if not done when the database was added back into the Availability Group.

Replay Manager Best Practices