Download EMC BACKUP AND RECOVERY OPTIONS FOR VSPEX FOR VIRTUALIZED MICROSOFT

DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION GUIDE
EMC® BACKUP AND RECOVERY OPTIONS
FOR VSPEX FOR VIRTUALIZED
MICROSOFT® SQL SERVER 2012
EMC VSPEX
January 2014
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Published January 2014
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EMC Backup and Recovery Options for VSPEX for Virtualized Microsoft SQL Server
2012
Part Number H12307
2
Design And Implementation Guide: VSPEX with EMC Backup and Recovery for
Virtualized Microsoft SQL Server
Contents
Chapter 1:
Introduction ..................................................................... 4
Purpose of this guide ...................................................................................... 4
Business value ................................................................................................ 4
Scope ..............................................................................................................6
Essential reading ............................................................................................ 6
Solution Overviews.......................................................................................... 6
Implementation and Design Guides for SQL Server ............................................. 6
VSPEX Proven Infrastructure ............................................................................. 6
Chapter 2:
Solution overview and sizing ............................................. 7
Solution architecture....................................................................................... 7
Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Overview .............................................................. 8
EMC Powered Backup and Recovery Overview ................................................ 8
EMC Avamar Deduplication Backup Software and System.................................... 9
EMC Data Domain Deduplication Storage System ............................................. 10
vSphere Data Protection ................................................................................ 10
Backup and Recovery Sizing .......................................................................... 12
Chapter 3:
SQL backup considerations ............................................. 13
Multistreaming backups ............................................................................... 13
Incremental backups..................................................................................... 13
Chapter 4:
Configuring SQL Server Backups....................................... 15
Avamar backup strategies overview .............................................................. 15
On-demand backups in a stand-alone environment .......................................... 16
On-demand backups in a high-availability environment .................................... 16
VDP Advanced 5.5.5 backup strategies overview .......................................... 18
Configuring SQL Server 2012 backups by using VDP Advanced .......................... 18
Avamar with Data Domain backup strategies overview ................................. 19
Chapter 5:
Solution Verification Methodologies ................................. 20
Backup and recovery verification methodology ............................................. 20
Recovery steps for Avamar ............................................................................. 20
Recovery steps for VDP Advanced ................................................................... 20
Chapter 6:
Reference Documentation ............................................... 21
Product documentation................................................................................. 21
Other documentation .................................................................................... 21
Design And Implementation Guide: VSPEX with EMC Backup and Recovery for
Virtualized Microsoft SQL Server
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Chapter 1:
Introduction
Purpose of this guide
This Solution Guide describes how to design, implement, and size EMC Powered
Backup solutions for VSPEX Proven Infrastructure for Virtualized Microsoft SQL Server.
EMC VSPEX for Virtualized SQL Server 2012 solution:
•
Provides customers with a validated solution, capable of hosting a virtualized
SQL Server solution at a consistent performance level.
•
Enables customers to quickly and consistently deploy and protect a virtualized
SQL Server 2012 organization in the VSPEX Proven Infrastructure.
•
Runs on a VMware vSphere® or a Microsoft Hyper-V virtualization layer.
•
Leverages the highly available EMC VNX® family, which provides the storage.
•
Leverages EMC Powered Backup and Recovery products, EMC Avamar®, EMC Data
Domain® systems, and VMware vSphere Data Protection Advanced (VDP
Advanced) ®.
Business value
Database Management Systems Software (DBMS) continues to be the dominant
software used to manage data in nearly all commercial segments. This growth is
expected to:
•
Continue despite the increasing market share of other data management tools,
for example in-memory and NoSQL databases.
•
Accelerate as customers continue to diversify the infrastructures and supporting
technologies and drive towards more hardware and software systems and
configurations.
The VSPEX Proven Infrastructure for SQL Server focuses on helping EMC partners
understand the value that the VNX series, EMC Backup and Recovery systems, and
SQL Server bring to customers who often have growing, isolated IT environments that
run server-centric applications and who face increasing SQL backup and recovery
issues.
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Design And Implementation Guide: VSPEX with EMC Backup and Recovery for
Virtualized Microsoft SQL Server
The VSPEX solution is designed to meet the SQL Server database challenges that
customers face, while enabling customers to grow in performance, scalability,
reliability, and automation. When you consolidate database applications on EMC
VNX, you can consolidate data onto a single centralized storage platform that enables
you to more effectively manage the exploding growth in data that is challenging
businesses today.
The VSPEX solution has been sized and proven with EMC Backup and Recovery
systems to:
•
Reduce backup storage requirements and costs
•
Meet backup windows
•
Enable fast disk-based recovery
EMC has joined forces with industry leading providers of IT infrastructure to create a
complete virtualization solution that accelerates the deployment of a private cloud
and virtualized Microsoft SQL Server.
VSPEX enables customers to accelerate their IT transformation with faster
deployment, more simplicity, greater choice, higher efficiency, and lower risk.
Validation by EMC ensures predictable performance and enables customers to select
technology that leverages existing IT infrastructure while eliminating planning, sizing,
and configuration burdens. VSPEX provides SQL Server infrastructures for customers
who are looking to simplify the environment while at the same time gaining more
choice in individual stack components.
EMC Powered Backup and Recovery solutions – EMC Avamar, EMC Data Domain and
VDP Advanced -- deliver the protection confidence needed to accelerate deployment
of virtualized SQL Server.
Figure 1. EMC Powered Backup and Recovery solutions covered in this Guide include EMC
Avamar deduplication software and system, EMC Data Domain deduplication storage system
and VMware vSphere Data Protection Advanced.
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Virtualized Microsoft SQL Server
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Scope
This Solution Guide describes how to design, implement, and size EMC Powered
Backup and Recovery for VSPEX Proven Infrastructure for Virtualized SQL Server
environments by using the following configurations:
•
EMC Avamar to protect SQL Server 2012 that runs within VMware vSphere or
Microsoft Hyper-V.
•
EMC Avamar and EMC Data Domain systems to protect SQL Server 2012 that runs
within VMware vSphere or Microsoft Hyper-V.
•
VDP Advanced and Data Domain systems DD2500 to protect SQL Server 2012
that runs within VMware vSphere with up to 300 virtual machines.
Essential reading
EMC recommends that you read the following documents, available on EMC.com and
the Powerlink website.
Solution
Overviews
Review the following VSPEX Solution Overview documents:
•
EMC VSPEX Proven Infrastructure for Virtualized SQL Server 2012
•
EMC VSPEX Server Virtualization Solutions For Mid-Market Business With Brocade
VDX Switches
•
Solution Overview: EMC VSPEX Server Virtualization Solution For Small And
Medium Business With Brocade ICX Switches
Review the following VSPEX Implementation Guides:
Implementation
and Design Guides • Design Guide: EMC VSPEX for Virtualized Microsoft SQL Server 2012
for SQL Server
• EMC VSPEX for Virtualized Microsoft SQL Server 2012 with Microsoft Hyper-V
Implementation Guide
•
VSPEX Proven
Infrastructure
6
EMC VSPEX for Virtualized Microsoft SQL Server 2012 with VMware vSphere
Implementation Guide
Review the VSPEX Proven Infrastructures documents on the EMC Community website.
Design And Implementation Guide: VSPEX with EMC Backup and Recovery for
Virtualized Microsoft SQL Server
Chapter 2:
Solution overview and sizing
This chapter provides an overview of the VSPEX Proven Infrastructure for virtualized
SQL Server 2012, the backup and recovery products used in this solution, and critical
guidance about backup and recovery solution sizing.
Solution architecture
Figure 2 illustrates the architecture that characterizes a validated VSPEX Proven
Infrastructure, which supports SQL Server 2012.
Figure 2. Solution architecture that includes VSPEX Proven Infrastructure for virtualized SQL
2012 and the supporting infrastructure components.
This example has the following components:
•
Eight SQL servers are deployed as virtual machines on a vSphere cluster.
•
One SQL Server virtual IP address.
•
A VNX or VNXe model that has been validated as part of the VSPEX Proven
Infrastructure is used to provide the back-end storage functionality.
•
The SQL Server virtual machine boot volumes are stored in virtual machine
data file (VMDK) format on NFS data stores.
Design And Implementation Guide: VSPEX with EMC Backup and Recovery for
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•
SQL Server database and log volumes are stored in RDM format on iSCSI
native disks.
•
EMC Powered Backup and Recovery systems that have been validated as
part of VSPEX Proven Infrastructure provides the backup and recovery
functionality.
Essential reading provides more information.
Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Overview
Microsoft SQL Server 2012 is an enterprise database management system that
enables businesses and customers to collaborate and share information. EMC
enhances SQL Server 2012 with a selection of storage platforms, software, and
services.
With SQL Server 2012, Microsoft presents a new, unified approach to high availability
(HA) and disaster recovery (DR) by introducing features such as AlwaysOn/Availability Groups (AO/AG) and robust filegroup recoveries. With an AO/AG
configuration, you can:
•
Conduct a backup or recovery on the Primary or Secondary Replica.
•
Configure two or more read-only Secondary Replicas.
•
Protect the environment from logical corruption by implementing a VDIbased backup with a point-in-time recovery solution.
A SQL Server 2012 organization includes the following server roles:
•
Primary Replica: Handles read and write activities from clients and sends
transaction log updates to the secondary replicas.
•
Secondary Replica: A point-in-time copy of the Primary Replica on a
different host. The VSPEX solution supports up to four secondary replicas.
•
Availability Group (AG) Listener: Virtual IP Address that controls the
availability groups backup, in an AO/AG environment.
Note: Each physical host uses its own local hard disk. This differs from a
traditional cluster, which uses a shared disk.
The server roles are the essential components in every SQL Server 2012 organization
using AG.
EMC Powered Backup and Recovery Overview
This section provides backup and recovery options, as well as recommended EMC
Powered Backup and Recovery configurations and sizing for the EMC VSPEX for
Virtualized Microsoft SQL Server 2012 solution.
Optimized for virtualized application environments, EMC Powered Backup and
Recovery solutions:

8
Deliver the confidence and efficiency that accelerates a VSPEX Private Cloud with
SQL server 2012 deployment.
Design And Implementation Guide: VSPEX with EMC Backup and Recovery for
Virtualized Microsoft SQL Server

Use software that is proven to reduce backup times by 90% and improve
recoveries times by 30x, for worry-free protection.

Use EMC Protection Storage to add another layer of reliability by providing end-toend verification and self-healing, which ensures successful recoveries.

Deliver big savings. With industry-leading deduplication, you can reduce:

EMC Avamar
Deduplication
Backup Software
and System
•
Backup storage by 10-30x,
•
Backup management time by 81%,
•
WAN bandwidth by 99% for efficient Disaster Recovery (DR)
Deliver up to a 7-month payback. With EMC Powered Backup and Recovery
solutions, you can simply and efficiently scale backup and recovery
configurations, as your environment grows.
EMC Avamar provides fast, efficient backup and recovery through a complete
software and hardware solution. Equipped with integrated variable-length
deduplication technology, Avamar facilitates fast, daily full backups for virtual
environments, remote offices, enterprise applications, network-attached storage
(NAS) servers, and desktops/laptops.
EMC Avamar Virtual Edition (AVE) is a single-node server that runs as a VM in a
VMware ESX/ESXi 4.1 or ESXi 5.0/5.1/5.5 environment.
Note: VMware ESX/ESXi 5.5 requires AVE 7.0 SP1 or later.
AVE:
•
Integrates the latest version of the Avamar software with SUSE Linux.
•
Runs autonomously as a target for all Avamar client backups and performs
replication to a physical Avamar system or another AVE.
•
Cannot scale to a multi-node Avamar server and does not support VM resizing. To
increase storage capacity, perform one of the following actions:

Deploy additional AVE VMs, and then divide the backup workload on the VMs.

Replicate the data to another Avamar server and delete the smaller VM.
Create a larger VM, and then replicate the data from the Avamar server to the
larger VM.
The Avamar plug-in supports backup and recovery operations of SQL Server database
data that ranges from entire databases to various object levels, such as filegroups.
The plug-in also includes the ability to restore data in-place to the same SQL server or
to perform a redirected restore to another SQL Server.
When you use Avamar Virtual Machine Image Protection to protect a virtual machine,
you can restore the virtual machine without installing the Avamar client on the
destination host.
The Avamar SQL Server plug-in performs the database backup and uses the base
Avamar Windows Client. For disaster-level recovery, recover the operating system
(OS) from a virtual machine image recovery by using the Avamar VMware Image plugDesign And Implementation Guide: VSPEX with EMC Backup and Recovery for
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in. After the OS-level recovery completes, use the Avamar plug-in to recover the SQL
Server databases.
Note: The implementation of VMware or Hyper-V image-level protection is beyond
the scope of this guide, but you can use this option to recovery the base
operating system.
EMC Data Domain
Deduplication
Storage System
EMC Data Domain deduplication storage systems continue to revolutionize disk
backup, archiving, and disaster recovery with high-speed, inline deduplication for
backup and archive workloads.
EMC recommends that you use Data Domain systems as a backup target for Avamar
in the following configurations:
•
VSPEX Private Clouds with VMware.
•
VSPEX Private Clouds with Hyper-V for 300 VMs or greater.
Install the Avamar client and plug-ins in the same way as when you use an Avamar
device as the backup target. If you use a Data Domain system as the backup target for
Avamar, then after the Data Domain system has been discovered within the Avamar
Manager software application, specify the backup target by checking the appropriate
box in the Avamar data set definition interface. Install the Avamar client and plug-ins
in the same way as when you use an Avamar device as the backup target. If you use a
Data Domain system as the backup target for Avamar, then after the Data Domain
system has been discovered within the Avamar Manager software application, specify
the backup target by checking the appropriate box in the Avamar data set definition
interface.
vSphere Data
Protection
For 300 VMware-based VSPEX deployments or less, VSPEX offers VDP Advanced for
SQL. Powered by EMC Avamar technology, VDP Advanced delivers fast and efficient
image-level backups and recoveries combined with SQL-specific plug-ins that makes
deployments as simple as possible.
VDP Advanced enables you to protect up to 10 VDP Advanced system in each vCenter
instance. A VDP Advanced system:
•
Provides up to 8 TB of capacity.
•
Supports up to 8 concurrent VM backups.
•
Operates independently from other VDP Advanced virtual appliances within the
vCenter server instance. Individual deduplication of each VM occurs in a VDP
Advanced virtual appliance. To take advantage of global deduplication,
implement Data Domain Protection Storage Architecture.
• Provides high efficiency- VDP Advanced uses an industry-leading and patented
variable length deduplication algorithm that minimizes storage and bandwidth
consumption. The use of CBT reduces backup and recovery times, which
minimizes the cost of application downtime.
• Provides resiliency - VDP Advanced provides agentless, image-level backups to
disk and guest-level, application-consistent protection for Microsoft Exchange
(including granular Exchange mailbox recovery), SQL Server, and SharePoint.
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Design And Implementation Guide: VSPEX with EMC Backup and Recovery for
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Network efficient, encrypted backup data replication enables you to back up data
offsite, which ensures business continuity and compliance.
• Provides simplicity - VDP Advanced provides full integration with vCenter Server
and end-to-end management by using the vSphere Web Client provides:

Familiar user interface, which makes the product easy to use and manage.

Flexible and simplified schedules, which reduce operational overhead for
vSphere administrators.
With VDP Advanced, you will benefit from fast, efficient image-level and file-level
backup, recovery, and replication combined with reliable, scalable, and efficient
storage protection.
Built-in Data Replication
The vSphere Replication feature provides an offline copy of a VM by copying changes
in the vmdk for a running VM to a vmdk file at a secondary location. Each copy
operation creates a replica of the VM at the secondary location and vSphere
Replication supports up to 24 concurrent point-in-time replicas. User-defined
Recovery Point Objectives (RPOs) determine the frequency of the replication
operation. You can set RPOs to occur at intervals between 15 minutes and 24 hours.
VDP Advanced provides a built-in replication solution that supports the replication of
deduplicated, encrypted backup data to a secondary location. The replication
solution in VDP Advanced provides longer retention periods with less aggressive
RPOs than vSphere Replication. When you use VDP Advanced replication, you can
store replicas at the secondary location for periods in the range of 30 and 60 days
and use RPO intervals of 24 hours and higher.
VDP Advanced replication supports the following destination types:
•
VDP Advanced
•
EMC Avamar
•
EMC Avamar with Data Domain
Design And Implementation Guide: VSPEX with EMC Backup and Recovery for
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Backup and
Recovery Sizing
Table 1 represents a possible sizing for this Solution based on assumptions
contained within the Design Guide: EMC VSPEX for Virtualized Microsoft SQL Server
2012.
50VM
100VM
300VM
600VM
1000VM
Avamar
Avamar
Data Domain
DD2500
Data Domain
DD4200
VSPEX Private Cloud with VMware vSphere
VDP Advanced
VDP Advanced
VDP Advanced
Data Domain
DD2500
Data Domain
DD2500
Data Domain
DD2500
VSPEX Private Cloud with Microsoft Hyper-V
Avamar Business
Edition (M1200)
Avamar
Avamar
Avamar
Data Domain
DD2500
Data Domain
DD2500
Data Domain
DD4200
Avamar Business
Edition (M1200)
Table 1. Recommended configurations for EMC Backup and Recovery solutions
for VSPEX for Virtualized SQL Server deployments
Note: Sizing can vary significantly depending on initial and day-over-day
commonalities, application change rates, retention periods that are required
for the business.
For example, based on assumptions within the Design Guide: EMC VSPEX for
Virtualized Microsoft SQL Server 2012, a drastic change in the retention period alone
can result in the need to use a higher capacity Data Domain appliance:
•
If a configuration uses a retention period of 30 days for 300 VMs, then you can
use a Data Domain DD2500.
•
If a configuration uses a retention period of 3 years for 300 VMs, then use a Data
Domain DD4200.
Always use the DPAD Sizing tool to provide formal sizing metrics for an environment.
The remainder of this document focuses on design and implementation for Avamar,
Avamar and Data Domain, and VMware VDP Advanced deployments for EMC VSPEX
for Virtualized Microsoft SQL server solution.
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Chapter 3:
SQL backup considerations
This section provides more information about how to reduce backup times by using
multistreaming and incremental backups.
Multistreaming backups
Avamar Multistreaming enables up to 10 parallel streams for each backup.
Multistreaming improves backup performance when you store backup data on the
Avamar server or on a Data Domain system. EMC Avamar 7.0 for SQL User Guide
provides more information about how to select the maximum number of streams for a
backup.
Multistreaming places additional demands on computer hardware and resources
beyond the base requirements for the Windows SQL VSS plug-in. Use multistreaming
with caution.
Note: EMC recommends that you use a clustered or AO/AG environment when you
use Avamar Multistreaming because CPU usage is higher than when you back
up data as a single stream. If you perform a multistreamed backup of an
active SQL Server node/primary replica, then the backup process can impact
the database server performance and the end users.
Incremental backups
In most environments the administrator configures daily full backups. In larger scale
environments, the length of time to complete a backup might exceed the available
backup window.
The backup completion time might exceed the available backup window for one or
more of the following reasons:
•
Databases are too large to complete in the required time.
•
The available server resources are insufficient for the size of the server, resulting
in a slower backup. The change rate or growth of the transaction logs negatively
impact SQL server performance and/or available capacity.
The VDP Advanced and Avamar products provide features that enable you to back up
the SQL Server data incrementally and complete the backup within the available
backup window.
When you configure an incremental backup schedule, EMC recommends that you
configure as many full backups as possible. To minimize the frequency of
incremental backups, identify the reason that the backup time exceeds the backup
window, then adjust the backup configuration.
When the number of databases or the sizes of the databases are too large to allow
you to run concurrent backups within the backup window, you can create a schedule
that minimally incorporates incremental backups.
Design And Implementation Guide: VSPEX with EMC Backup and Recovery for
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For example:
1.
Create two backup groups, group1 and group2 that each contains half the
databases.
2.
Schedule group1 to perform an incremental backup and schedule group2 to
perform a full backup every second day.
3.
Schedule group2 to perform an incremental backup and schedule group1 to
perform a full backup on alternate days.
Configuring a full database backup every two days has the following benefits:
•
•
Greatly reduces the need to restore from an incremental backup. For example, you
only need to perform an incremental restore when:

A major failure occurs.

The last backup was the incremental backup.

You need to restore the full database.
Enables you to recover data from a Full backup. After you recover the database,
you can recover the filegroup.
Note: Frequent recoveries from incremental backups are unlikely except in very
large SQL environments.
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Chapter 4:
Configuring SQL Server Backups
This section provides an overview of backup strategies for Avamar, VDP Advanced, or
Avamar with a Data Domain system, to back up SQL Server.
Avamar backup strategies overview
SQL Server contains the following data:
•
SQL Server database (.mdf) files. This .mdf file extension is the main data file.
•
Transaction log (.ldf) files. Files that store uncommitted database data. After SQL
Server commits the operations in the log files by using an ordered Logical
Sequence Number (LSN), SQL Server writes the operations to the .mdf file.
•
Filegroups (.ndf) files. Filegroups are secondary data files that consist of all the
data files, other than the primary data file. Some databases may not have any
secondary data files, while others have several secondary data files. The
recommended file name extension for filegroup files is .ndf. A successful
database backup includes each filegroup. The Avamar Plug-in for SQL Server does
not allow you to back up specific filegroups. The plug-in supports filegroup
recoveries, after you recover the database.
The backup strategy for a Microsoft SQL Server environment can include the following
data in a standalone SQL server or Always On/Availability Group (AO/AG)
configuration:
•
SQL Server instance (all of .mdf database files for that instance and the
necessary system database files) .
•
Selected database files and the transaction logs.
•
Selected database files without the transaction logs When Avamar backs up the
database file, the backup can optionally include the accompanying .ldf
transaction log files depending on whether they are executing an incremental or
differential backup strategy.
Note: You can only include Full Recovery Model databases in an AG because the
refresh operation on the Secondary Replica transmits the new data synchronously or
asynchronously by using log shipping. The AG cannot support Simple Recovery Mode
databases because the databases have log files which the log shipping methodology
cannot update.
The backup strategy for a Microsoft SQL environment should include the following
SQL Server 2012 data objects:
•
Stand-alone, Non-AO/AG databases
•
AO/AG Databases in the Primary (or Secondary) replica
•
Transaction logs
Design And Implementation Guide: VSPEX with EMC Backup and Recovery for
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On-demand
backups in a
stand-alone
environment
When you perform an on-demand backup in a stand-alone environment, you can back
up the entire SQL instance or selected SQL Server 2012 databases with or without the
transaction logs.
On-demand
backups in a highavailability
environment
The Avamar SQL Server plug-in can back up either the Primary Replica or the
Secondary Replica in a high-availability SQL Server configuration.
In SQL Server 2012, a physical server (node) contains either a primary replica of all
the selected databases, or a secondary replica of the same AG on a second (and
usually distant) physical server. To back up all passive databases on a Secondary
Replica, select the AG for the node. To back up all active databases on a Primary
Replica, select the AG for the Primary Replica.
The main purpose of the Secondary Replica is to provide a time-lagged replica (copy)
of SQL Server production instances and/or databases, which you can use to backup
and recover production data, including selective filegroup recoveries. You can
configure the time-lagged replica to transmit transaction log data synchronously (near
real-time) or asynchronously (user-defined time lag) from the Primary Replica to the
Secondary Replica.
EMC recommends that you back up the Secondary Replica instead of the Primary
Replica. Backup operations require CPU/RAM resources which can negatively impact
end users when you back up the Primary Replica. When you back up the Secondary
Replica, you reduce the impact on production SQL resources. However, there are
some scenarios that may require a combination of Primary or the Secondary Replica
backups. For example, some environments perform occasional consistency check
operations against the AGs on each physical node before a backup to ensure physical
and logical consistencies. In this scenario, you can schedule a backup of the Primary
Replica 6 days a week but back up the AG of databases on the Secondary Replica,
once a week after a Database Consistency Check (DBCC) completes as a
countermeasure against rolling corruption. With the Secondary Replica considered
the “court of last resort,” this hybrid strategy is the second leading method to
leveraging a Secondary Replica as part of a high availability and disaster recovery
strategy.
Backups of SQL Server 2012 AO/AG environments
To back up the Secondary Replica in the AO/AG by using the Avamar client, create an
Avamar client resource for the AG listener. Use this client resource instead of the
individual SQL Server client resource to back up the AG. The SQL Administrator can
add user-defined databases to the AG based on business importance or other critical
criteria.
The SQL Admin makes a choice when configuring the Avamar or Data Domain dataset
in the Avamar Admin GUI.
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To configure the Avamar SQL Server 2012 AO/AG Backup, perform the following
steps:
1.
Install the Avamar client for Windows and the SQL Server plug-in on the
physical nodes that represent the Primary and Secondary Replicas. EMC Avamar
7.0 for SQL User Guide describes how to install both the client and plug-in on
each physical node in the AG environment.
2.
Run the Avamar Cluster Client Configuration tool to create an Avamar Cluster
resource name for the AG listener that is used to communicate with the SQL
Server AG name. EMC Avamar 7.0 for SQL User Guide provides step-by-step
instructions.
The following figure illustrates an example of an AO/AG with two SQL servers: Node1
and Node2. The AG contains a user-controlled number of SQL Server databases.
Figure 3. Backup workflow for SQL Server 2012 AO/AG.
In this example:
•
One Primary Replica contains four active databases in their own SQL
instance.
•
The Primary Replica sends time-lagged SQL transaction log data to a
Secondary Replica for the four databases by using synchronous (near realtime) or asynchronous (user-defined time lag) log shipping methods.
Note: The AO/AG requires that a one-time copy of the database and
logs occur for the first seed of the replica. Subsequent data
transmissions use log shipping.
Design And Implementation Guide: VSPEX with EMC Backup and Recovery for
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•
Avamar enables backup and recovery of the four databases in the defined
AG for either the Primary Replica or the Secondary Replica.
•
Only one copy of each AG requires a backup.
VDP Advanced 5.5.5 backup strategies overview
Use the VMware vSphere Web Client interface to select, schedule, configure, and
manage backups and recoveries of virtual machines.
During a backup, VDP creates a quiesced snapshot of the virtual machine and
automatically deduplicates the backup data.
Configuring SQL
Server 2012
backups by using
VDP Advanced
To configure SQL Server 2012 backups:
1.
Select the job type:

Virtual machine image: Performs a snapshot backup of the vmdk file. VDP
Advanced supports SQL log truncation.

Full server: Performs a full backup of a SQL Server.

Selected databases: Allows you to specify the SQL Server databases to
back up.
Note: The Full server and Selected databasesjob types provide correct
truncation of SQL logs resulting in an application-consistent
database.
2.
Depending on the choice made in the previous step, select either Full [SQL]
Server or the databases to back up.
3.
Select the SQL Server application options:
a.
In the Backup Type field, select Full, Differential or Incremental. The
backup operation automatically promotes Incremental and Differential
backups to a level Full backup when a full backup does not exist.
b.
The remaining steps involve configuring Advanced Options, for example
standard retention periods and alternate retention periods. A Backup Job
Summary page provides a list of all selected options.
c.
The newly created backup job appears on the Backup tab.
Note: EMC recommends that you select only the SQL Server per backup.
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Avamar with Data Domain backup strategies overview
Avamar 7.0 and later versions support SQL database and log file backups to a Data
Domain system. Avamar 6.0.x supported database backups to a Data Domain system
only. Although beyond the scope of this paper, this change in support changes the
previous paradigm for Avamar/Data Domain sizing because the log files, around 1
MB in size, can now result in different Avamar/Data Domain ratios.
Avamar 7.0 and later has the following advantages:
•
You can deploy more, smaller Avamar grids, which hold most or all of the
Exchange transaction log files.
•
You can co-locate database and logs on the same devices/media as part of a
unified recovery operation.
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Chapter 5: Solution Verification Methodologies
This section provides guidance and the steps required to verify the backup
configuration by performing recovery operations that use the EMC Avamar
deduplication software and the VDP-Advanced software.
Backup and recovery verification methodology
Verification of the SQL Server backup configuration and the ability to restore the data
requires a number of recovery operations. The highest level is to recover an entire AG.
You would recover the database into the original Replica, or to the Primary Replica.
There are other lower level elements to confirm in the event that the environment is
configured with Avamar filegroup recovery. When you recover these lower level
objects, consider the following:
Recovery steps for
Avamar
Recovery steps for
VDP Advanced
•
Avamar SQL Server agent can perform lower level recoveries.
•
VDP Advanced does not have the capability to perform lower level recoveries.
You must first recover the SQL Server database or perform filegroup recovery,
then restore the incremental or a differential transaction logs backups in correct
date/time ordered logical sequence numbers (LSN). The use of an LSN also
permits point-in-time recoveries for all databases that you configured for Full
Recovery mode, which is the only mode that AG supports.
The following core Avamar SQL VSS documents outline the specific steps for recovery
of lower level objects:
•
EMC Avamar 7.0 for SQL User Guide
•
EMC Avamar 7.0 Operational Best Practices
•
EMC Avamar 7.0 Administration Guide
To configure SQL Server 2012 recoveries:
1.
Open the VDP Admin GUI, and then select the Backup & Restore tab.
2.
Select the backup that you want to recover.
3.
Set the restore options:

Restore to Original Location: Restores the selected SQL Server instance or
database to the original location.

Restore to Alternate Location: Restores the selected SQL Server instance or
database(s) to a location that differs from the original location.
Note: Do not select the tail-log backup when you perform a redirected
restore to a different SQL Server instance.
4.
The remaining recovery steps are advanced options. The vSphere Data
Protection Administration Guide - vSphere Data Protection Advanced 5.5.5
provides detailed information.
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Chapter 6:
Reference Documentation
This section summarizes the documentation to review for more information about
EMC Avamar, Microsoft SQL Server 2012, and VMware vSphere.
Product documentation
The following documents provide additional and relevant information. If you do not
have access to a document, contact your EMC representative.
•
EMC Avamar 7.0 for SQL User Guide
•
EMC Avamar 7.0 Administration Guide
•
EMC Avamar 7.0 for VMware User Guide
•
vSphere Data Protection Administration Guide -vSphere Data Protection
Advanced 5.5.5
Other documentation
The following TechNet articles provide additional and relevant information.
•
Deploy a Highly Available Virtual Machine
•
SQL Server 2012 Prerequisite
•
Network Load Balancing Deployment Guide
Note: The links provided were working correctly at the time of publication.
The Microsoft website provides documentation on Microsoft SQL Server:
http://www.microsoft.com
The VMware website provides documentation on VMware vSphere and vCenter:
http://www.vmware.com
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