Backup Large Databases

[luisarnauth]

Hello all,

I got a case where the Customer currently does his SQL Server backups via SAN, using TSM and the HBA installed on the server.

When I P2V the server how can we backup? The db files are somewhat large (~1TB) and he likes one full per day.

Thank you for your experience.

Luis Arnauth

[znet98]

May be you can convince your user to use de-duplicate which provide by NetApps/LEgato/Veritas.

Otherwiase, it really causes longtime and network traffic.

For this case, I dont recommend VCB backup ( please correct me if i am wrong)

Thanks

[vietam2010]

Hi,

I think LAN-Free is best solution for this case.

Do you think that ?

[tu_ha]

I have a this case :

DataStore : 1,5 Tb

1 VirtualMachine using 1,45 Tb data on this DataStore.

I cannot backup this virtual machine by VDR (error create snapshoot). How can i do to fix this problem ?

[RParker]

When I P2V the server how can we backup? The db files are somewhat large (~1TB) and he likes one full per day.

Well he doesn't understand differential backups then, because you don't need to do FULL per day. 1 FULL maybe once a month, then do a DIFFERENTIAL backup. Done!

[RParker]

I cannot backup this virtual machine by VDR (error create snapshoot). How can i do to fix this problem ?

Probably out of disk space on datastore . . .

[Rumple]

VDR isn't doing a real backup of that SQL server anyhow since its only the operating system so don't kill yourself with that yet.

In this instance, with them using a Fiber attached tape solution using TSM I would not virtualize that server. If you need to Virtualize you will need to look at something that integrates with the SAN (ie, virtualize the O/S and run ISCSI inside the virtual machine to mount the other disk and using SAN software/hardware to perform snaps. (ie, something like snapmanager for SQL on netapp).

Have you actually tested to see if a SQL database thats 1.5 TB in size

is going to actually perform will as a VM. There are alot of

considerations to SQL on physical hardware let alone Virtualized.

[luisarnauth]

It's absolutely necessary to p2v this machine, (or mscs to be more accurate). It's part of the protection group for SRM.

znet98, VCB is out of the question, the VSS provider is only good for file system.

I think that what the answer is more in terms of what RParker wrote. One full per week (come on... i cannot convince him to make a jump from daily to monthly) and the differentials that he needs during the day.

My concern is if there is a LAN free solution available as vietam2010 said.

Luis

[EPL]

We use a program from Quest Software called LiteSpeed. Its a SQL Server backup program that compresses the data before it sends it over the wire. We have an 800GB database that gets shrunk down to < 200GB and takes less than 2 hours to backup and takes very little overhead on the server as its backing up. Its very easy to setup and use, and restores are equally simple. Before we had our SAN, I frequently had to restore the database onto dev or staging servers.