SQL Server disaster recovery - advice about AppAssure

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SQL Server disaster recovery - advice about AppAssure

pharmkittie

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Points: 5775
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May 8, 2013 at 10:50 am

#293119

Hello,
We are on SQL Server 2012 but I don't think that matters a lot for my question (I'm posting to 2005 as it has the backup forum). Does anyone know what steps to take after AppAssure restores an entire SQL Server instance to a server? I have scoured the vendors very sparse documentation and there aren't any details. They have some marketing materials that say it just works but my boss wants a step-by-step document saying what needs to be done after a complete restore. I am not allowed to test a recovery so that i can learn by doing.
It may sound like I'm being lazy but I really have done a lot of google searching and reading of blogs, vendor docs, etc. to try to get the answer. If you have a link to point me to that would be great. I realize that not many who read this will be using AppAssure but I'm hoping...
Thanks.

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Lowell SSC Guru Points: 323504 More actions · Answer 1

interesting, my knee jerk reaction is That I would still script out for disaster recovery, an d keep performing native backup and disaster recovery for SQL server regardless of the high level sales literature that implies it's the best solution since sliced bread.

I read the Dell corporate fluff at these two links:

http://www.appassure.com/server-backup-replication-and-recovery/

http://www.appassure.com/downloads/Dell_AppAssure_Specsheet.pdf

and it appears to be a server solution that happens to try to take care of SQL

Recovery Assure™
Detects the presence of Microsoft Exchange and SQL and its
respective databases and log files, then carries out a nightly test to
confirm that database application backups are fully recoverable. If any
backup fails this test, a notification is automatically sent so you can
resolve the problem immediately

and version support:

SQL Server support
• MS SQL Server 2012, 2008 R2, 2008,2005
• MS SQL clusters based on Microsoft Cluster Server

Lowell

--help us help you! If you post a question, make sure you include a CREATE TABLE... statement and INSERT INTO... statement into that table to give the volunteers here representative data. with your description of the problem, we can provide a tested, verifiable solution to your question! asking the question the right way gets you a tested answer the fastest way possible!

pharmkittie SSCertifiable Points: 5775 More actions · Answer 2

Thanks. Agreed but my boss and his network admin LURVE AppAssure. They don't react well to any ideas that it's not the bees knees. He wanted me to disable all SQL backups because they are superfluous in his mind but I convinced him to let me keep them (for one day only though).

Oh yes, I have scripted everything out for DR but I need to make the cookbook for the AppAssure recovery. That's the one he wants to see.

Lowell SSC Guru Points: 323504 More actions · Answer 3

remind him about partial data recovery and point in time restores.

the little bit i read says NIGHTLY backups, and does not mention SQL Server point in time recoveries throughout the day.

if something goes wrong late in the day, can the business lose the entire days data to last nights restore?

For partial point in time restores, you need the native full + transaction log backups so you can restore to a new database and MERGE data to fix those issues like when someone accidentally inserts/updates one specific table's worth of data, and that's the only thing you have to recover.

Lowell

--help us help you! If you post a question, make sure you include a CREATE TABLE... statement and INSERT INTO... statement into that table to give the volunteers here representative data. with your description of the problem, we can provide a tested, verifiable solution to your question! asking the question the right way gets you a tested answer the fastest way possible!

pharmkittie SSCertifiable Points: 5775 More actions · Answer 4

Thanks very much for all the information Lowell. He says we can failover from VMware replica (VMware replica though we have transactional replication too. I'd have to make the subscriber the publisher. I pointed out that the subscriber isn't symmetrical with the publisher and he said, "make it so"). I'm new to this company.

I still need the AppAssure steps after restore if anyone uses the software.