Quick guide for backing up data

Before you begin

Before you run backup and restore operations, verify that you satisfy the requirements to process backup and restore operations in a secure environment. For more information, see Prerequisites.

Plan your backup

1. Verify the database type for which you want to create a backup.
   • Review your SQL server environment setup and verify whether you want to back up a stand-alone SQL server instance or an availability database in a clustered environment.
   • If your SQL server instance is part of a clustered environment, verify whether it is part of a failover cluster or an AlwaysOn availability group (AAG) environment. On SQL Server 2012 and later versions, you can back up availability databases in an AlwaysOn Availability Group (AAG) regardless of which availability replica is used for the backup operation.

   For more information, see Environment overview.

2. Decide your backup strategy.
   • Based on the type of backup you want to do, choose your backup method. Data Protection for SQL Server supports the VSS and Legacy (API) backup methods. Depending on the method you choose, different types of backups and storage options are available to you.

     Table 1. Overview of backup strategies

     Summary	VSS (Snapshot backups)	Legacy backup
     Supported backup types	Full, copy-only	Full, copy-only, differential, transaction log, file, group, set
     Storage options available	On a local disk, on IBM Storage Protect server storage pool, or offloaded to other servers.	On IBM Storage Protect server storage pool only

     For more information, see Database backup types.

   • Choose your storage requirement; locally or on IBM Storage Protect server.

Configure your backup

1. Configure your backup settings.

   • Configure the storage pools where you want to store your data.
   • Configure your IBM Storage Protect nodes. Depending on your SQL Server environment and selected backup strategy, the following nodes are relevant.
     • Target node (SQL Server node) which owns the Data Protection for SQL Server backup data on the IBM Storage Protect server. In a stand-alone configuration, this node stores data when the data is sent to IBM Storage Protect.
     • VSS Requestor node (if you are creating VSS backups). This node does not store any data on the IBM Storage Protect server, but is required for VSS processing.
     • Cluster node (if you are storing data in a failover or AAG configuration). When you run a restore, you must be able to restore the data on any node in the cluster. Therefore, this node must be defined and used on all members of the SQL cluster from which backups and restores are run. You define the cluster node as a proxy node for all the VSS Requestor and SQL Server nodes.
   Configuration requirements for Data Protection for SQL Server, IBM Storage Protect, and other applications vary. For more information, see Configuring.
2. Configure your storage management policy for your backup.
   • Within an IBM Storage Protect storage environment, you can define policies to help ensure that the storage environment meets your organization's requirements for data protection and retention. Before you start using Data Protection for SQL Server, review the preferred settings for IBM Storage Protect policies.
   For more information, see Policy management for backups.

Choose your backup approach

• MMC GUI
• Command-line interface that use Windows™ PowerShell cmdlets or command-line interface commands
• Scheduled backup task that uses the Windows or IBM Storage Protect client scheduler in MMC

For more information, see Starting Microsoft Management Console and Starting the command-line interface.

Run your backup

Based on the type of backup you want to do, the backup method that you chose, and the backup approach you want to use, create your backup. For more information, see Creating VSS backups of SQL Server databases and Creating legacy backups of SQL Server databases.

Verify your backup

You can view the status of the backup operation in MMC by clicking Task List in the results pane. Click Task Details to view detailed status information.