Take Ownership for Protecting SQL Databases with NetBackup 8.3
Protecting SQL is nothing new for Veritas NetBackup™ because the first supported versions go back to 1998 with SQL 6.5! As part of our ever-expanding workload support, NetBackup 8.3 introduces SQL Self-Service, the ability to give complete ownership of SQL backups and restores to SQL DBAs in your organization. Through enhanced RBAC controls, SQL DBAs can now manage all areas of database discovery, credentials management, backup, and restore. (See Figure 1.)
Figure 1. Get an overview of your Microsoft SQL Server Instances, Availability Groups, databases, and Instant Access databases—then drill down to learn more.
Newly supported features in NetBackup 8.3 include:
- Automated backup via SQL Intelligent Policies in the WebUI
- Instant access for SQL on both NetBackup Appliances and build-your-own (RHEL7.6 or 7.7) appliances
- Support for SQL Availability Groups
- Support for SQL 2019
- Search improvements in the WebUI
- Support for non-standard ports
- Improved job restarts
- Deduplication improvements
- Transaction Log scheduling enhancements
- Recovery to original or alternate locations
Let’s double-tap on Instant Access (IA). (See Figure 2.) DBAs need fast access to already protected databases for many reasons. Often, ad-hoc user requests come at any time of the day, including when a crisis strikes, and DBAs must be able to recover multiple databases quickly. The IA feature allows for quick recovery directly from the NetBackup Media Server with no data movement. (See Figure 3.) DBAs can access individual files or mount in place, providing production access to databases, if needed.
Figure 2. Find the recovery points you can restore to using the calendar component.
All these features are also available via restful APIs. If it’s in the NetBackup WebUI, it has an API!
Now, what if you don’t want to interact with NetBackup or install an agent on your server? NetBackup has a capability called Universal Shares that provides deduplicated storage via NAS mount directly to your server. Just redirect your script to the mount point, and NetBackup takes care of the rest. Your data is stored efficiently in a deduplicated format. Need more control? Add a Protection Point to your script. NetBackup will then store a snapshot of the Universal Share that will be indexed and searchable in our catalog. You can mount that snapshot anywhere to recover your database, provide for downstream processing, or create copies for Test/Dev needs. Quotas can also be applied to Universal Shares to better manage the amount of storage used
To learn more about the other exciting new features in NetBackup 8.3, visit:
