Manage : SQL Servers

Once you have created a backup job, you can modify its settings using the Manage screen's Edit option. This allows you to change selections that were made when the job was created. There are also options that are not available when you create a backup job.

To modify a backup job:

1. Select BackupAssist's Backup tab
2. Select Manage Backup Jobs
3. Select the backup job that you want to change.
4. Select Edit from the top menu
5. Select the part of the job you want to change from the list on the left
6. Once you have made the required changes, select Apply changes

There are 8 common options in the list, similar to the steps completed during the back job creation. There is also a option specific to each backup type.

To edit database selections for an added SQL server:

1. Check Select all if you wish to backup all databases and any future databases that are created. You can exclude specific databases if required by unchecking them; all future databases created will still be backed up.
2. Uncheck Select all to select each database individually to backup. No databases created in the future will be backed up, only those selected.

To remove an SQL Server from the backup selections permanently, click the Remove icon to the right of the SQL server you wish to remove.

You can add as many SQL servers as required, and each server can be configured separately. To perform transaction log backups of your SQL databases, you need to create a SQL Method backup job.

To selecting a backup method:

1. Click Add MSSQL server to backup data from a Microsoft® SQL server.
2. A new window will appear listing all MSSQL servers that were detected.
3. Either select a SQL server from the Server drop-down menu or input the name or IP address of the SQL server directly.
4. Click Connect to establish a connection with the SQL server.
5. You will then be asked to supply authentication credentials to connect to the SQL server.
1. Check Use the BackupAssist user identity if the SQL Server supports Windows authentication and the backup user identity has access to the SQL Server.
2. Uncheck Use the BackupAssist user identity if the SQL server supports either mixed authentication (Windows and SQL) or SQL authentication only. You can then input a valid user name and password.
6. Now select which databases to backup from the SQL Server.
• Check Select all if you wish to backup all databases and any future databases that are created. You can exclude specific databases if required by unchecking them. All future databases created will still be backed up.
• Uncheck Select all to select each database individually to backup. No databases created in the future will be backed up, only those selected.
7. Finally, click Add to add the SQL server and databases to your backup selections.

To suspend or prevent an added SQL server from being backed up, without removing it, uncheck the box next to the name of the SQL server. Check the box to re-enable the database selection for that SQL server. This is sometimes useful if you encounter problems with your databases backups and need to temporarily disable selections while resolving the issue.

You can change the account used to back up a SQL Server by selecting the key icon next to the server. When you select the key,an authentication dialog will open. Select Use a BA user identity if this account has access to the SQL Server you are connecting to. Select Specify user identity if you need to use another Windows or SQL account to connect to the server, and provide that account's user name and password.

The authentication account, BA user identity account (if different to the account used for this backup) and the SQL Server’s service account, ALL need access to the backup destination.

This feature allows two backup jobs to run at the same time, if they meet the backup type and combination criteria.

For SQL Continuous backups, the Concurrent backup option will appear in the left menu when editing the job. This option only shows for SQL Continuous jobs. File Archiving backups enable Concurrent backups under Zip Options.

To enable concurrent backups for SQL Continuous:

1. Select Concurrent backup from the left menu.
2. Select Enable concurrent backups from the Concurrent backup page.

Considerations

Concurrent backup combinations:

• Two File Archiving backup jobs can run at the same time if both have ‘Enable concurrent backup’ selected.
• An SQL Protection backup job, with ‘Enable concurrent backup’ selected, can run concurrently with a System Protection, File Protection or File Archiving backup job. The File Archiving backup job does not need to have ‘Enable concurrent backup’ selected. (System Protection and File Protection do not have an ‘Enable concurrent backup’ option).
• An SQL Protection backup job can run at the same time, in any combination, if both have ‘Enable concurrent backup’ selected.
• In all cases, only two backup jobs can run concurrently.

Concurrent backup scenarios:

• If two concurrent backups are scheduled to start at the same time, one backup will start first and begin preparing the job. Once the preparation phase has completed, the second backup will start
• If a third scheduled backup job has 'Enable concurrent backup' selected, it will be queued and run once one of the two existing concurrent backup jobs has finished.

Concurrent backup limitations:

• Only two backup jobs can run concurrently.
• Concurrent backups cannot write to the same destination device (e.g local drive, NAS, RDX etc).
• If another backup job is already running when the concurrent backups are scheduled to start, then one of the concurrent backups will start if it meets the criteria defined in the concurrent combinations section.
• A backup job cannot run concurrently if it is backing up a Hyper-V environment or an Exchange server using VSS (VSS enabled).