Microsoft SQL Server Backup

For a Simple Recovery Model:

• The full backup will contain .MDF, .LDF and .NDF (in case of filegroups) files in the backup image.
• The differential backup will contain .LDF files.
• Incremental (Log) backups will be skipped for databases using the Simple Recovery Model.

For a Full Recovery Model:

• The full backup will contain .MDF, .LDF and .NDF (in case of filegroups) files in the backup image.
• The differential backup will contain the changed blocks of the .MDF database file.
• Incremental (Log) backups will contain .TRN files (transaction logs flushed to the disk). These are transactions that have changed since the last backup of any level, be it Full, Differential, or Incremental.

For a Bulk Recovery Model:

• The full backup will contain .MDF, .LDF and .NDF (in case of filegroups) files in the backup image.
• The differential backup will contain the changed blocks of the .MDF database file.
• Incremental (Log) backups will contain .TRN files (transaction logs flushed to the disk). These are transactions that have changed since the last backup of any level, be it Full, Differential, or Incremental.

• Transaction logs will be truncated during any full or incremental backup. Logs will not be truncated during differential backups.
• The master database is only backed up as part of the full backups. During a restore of the master database, the SQL server is stopped and will be restarted after the restoration has completed.
• Microsoft recommends that MS SQL and System State backups not be run simultaneously.
• Any read-only databases are only backed up as part of the full backups.
• Carbonite Safe Server Backup will only back up MS SQL databases that are in the Mounted state.
• A backup set created to backup MS SQL only backs up the MS SQL databases. It does not back up other MS SQL files such as program installation files, etc. To protect an MS SQL server from a disaster, make sure that you create a separate File System backup set to back up the other crucial MS SQL files.
• The SQL server backup set validation checks for the amandabackup / CarboniteUser SQL user, but it does not check if the privileges are sufficient for backup and recovery.

CSSB is able to take snapshots of files located on network shares configured with the SMB3 protocol. This allows backup of open, in-use, and locked files that exist on these shares.

The following requirements must be met.

• The following backup types allow VSS snapshots of data on a SMB3 network share:
  • File System
  • Microsoft SQL Server
  • Hyper-V (Full backups only)
• The application server on which Carbonite Safe Server Backup is installed and the file server that houses the data must both be running Windows Server 2012 or higher.
• The application server and file server must be joined to the same Active Directory domain.
• The File Server VSS Agent Service role service must be installed on the file server.
• The amandabackup / CarboniteUser user (or the user specified in Tools; Network Location) must be a member of the Backup Operators and Administrators groups on both the application server and file server.
  • The amandabackup / CarboniteUser user is granted these roles by default during CSSB installation. If a different user account is specified in Tools; Network Location, please ensure this user has the correct roles.
    • If amandabackup / CarboniteUser (or the user specified in Tools; Network Location) has been created as a domain user, simply ensure that amandabackup / CarboniteUser is a member of both groups on both machines.
      • In some environments, you may have to add amandabackup / CarboniteUser (or the user specified in Tools; Network Location) to the local Backup Operators and Administrators groups instead of using the domain groups.
    • If amandabackup / CarboniteUser (or the user specified in Tools; Network Location) has been created as a local user on the CSSB system and does not exist on both machines, you must manually create an identical user account on any system where it does not exist.
      • Use the same password for all systems.
      • Ensure that the user account is a member of the Backup Operators and Administrators groups on all systems.
• The amandabackup / CarboniteUser user (or the user specified in Tools; Network Location) must have read-only or greater access to the file server.
  • It is recommended to give Full Control to this user account.

A snapshot cannot be created if these requirements are not met. If you are attempting a Hyper-V or Microsoft SQL Server backup, the backup will fail immediately without a snapshot.

If you are attempting a File System backup, CSSB will attempt to copy the files even if a snapshot cannot be created. Open, locked, and in-use files will fail to back up, but the backup as a whole will progress unless too many files cannot be backed up. Please refer to this Knowledge Base article.

Carbonite Safe Server Backup can perform differential backups of SQL Server 2014 databases with memory-optimized tables. However, preview builds of SQL 2014 are not optimized for differential backups.

In Community Technology Preview 2 (CTP2) or earlier, the differential backup will include all data and delta files as if it were a full backup. There will be no reduction in size; a differential is essentially the same thing as a full backup.

SQL 2014 RTM (release-to-manufacturing) is optimized so that differential backups are smaller than full backups in the expected manner.

Please refer to this page for more information: http://blogs.technet.com/b/dataplatforminsider/archive/2014/02/07/differential-database-backup-with-memory-optimized-tables.aspx.