Backing up multiple SQL instance and databases using 3rd party software - Any recommendations

  • We have utilized LightSpeed with great success (we used our own custom backup scripts) and of course SQL Native Backup works as expected.  

    SQL Native Backup will create a larger backup disk file when you are backing up with compression until the backup is complete then the backup file gets truncated down to size.  LS does not have that issue as it grabs disk space as the backup is happening and does not need to truncate the backup file at the end of the backup. 

    We changed to EMC's Avamar at the first of the year for all Enterprise Backups (VM, SQL, Oracle, HANA) and are still having issues with the product for SQL/Server (EMC Avamar replaced CommVault for the Enterprise).  Our issues are: some Avamar SQL Full or Incr backup (Incr are TLog backups) jobs hang up and have to be manually canceled and DB's that are just skipped from Full or Incr backups (this sucks on the weekends).  Also, if you need 5 minute TLog backups that is not built into the Avamar GUI as you will need to manually create scripted backups and manually purge old backup files from the backend Data Domain storage.  Therefore, I can't recommend Avamar at this time due to the listed reasons and the lack of vendor support resolving the mentioned issues unless you want to be a SQL backup babysitter.  We do have hope that these issues will be resolved - just not sure when.  On the restore side, Avamar is very good from the GUI and the de-dupe function saves a lot of backup disk space that seems to be protected from Ransom Ware attempts.  Also, we just received support today for SQL 2017 Avamar backups; so, we can now backup our 2017 SQL instances with Avamar. 

    I have used the Commvault SQL Agent backups and if the CommServe is down (for any reason) or the library is out of scratch tapes etc your backups will be in limbo until the CV issues are resolved.  Therefore, where possible we backed up SQL to local disk (LightSpeed or SQL Native Backup with compression) then swept the local disk backups with the CV Windows file system agent which is cheaper than purchasing 300 CV SQL Agent licenses.

    Nothing will be faster than SQL Native backup or LightSpeed (just my experience) and give you the control over your backups happening in a timely manner ALL of the time. 

    I have no experience with the other listed backup products.

  • Beatrix Kiddo - Friday, November 24, 2017 9:22 AM

    Sue_H - Wednesday, November 22, 2017 2:45 PM

    I've used the ones you have listed and I think I may have heard of the one you are considering - is it Rubrik?
    I never used Rubrik and have heard good things. But when it comes to backups I personally wouldn't go with a start up. So many of them are written as being so wonderful and then they disappear. Or get bought and disappear.

    If it is Rubrik, I have quite a lot of experience with it and would personally not recommend it for SQL Server at this stage in its development. I'd be happy to answer questions by PM if anybody wants further details.

    (My views are my own and do not represent my employer in any way.)

    Please share. I'll DM you for more. Our IT team is pushing Rubrik as the end-all be-all for backup software.

  • My main recommendation is DO NOT use Cloudberry:

    1. Difficult to restore a backup to a different machine.
    2. Confusing synchronization model "Synchronize repository before restore" and "Run consistency checks"
    3. Silent failures requiring me to monitor backup processes and restart back-up chains with full back-ups when .trn files get deleted from the temp backup folder but never made it to AWS S3 bucket
    4. Customer support is difficult
    5. Does not have the concept of a "full backup set". Some files you need could be in Glacier in order to do a full restore, which makes setting a Recovery Time Objective very difficult.

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