Symantec Backup Exec

The SQL Agent provides support for the following:

• Database, transaction log, differential, and filegroup backups, as well as database recovery and replacement.

• An automated restore of the master database.

• The Intelligent Disaster Recovery option, which automates the disaster recovery process of SQL Servers.

• Restores of SQL databases to alternate locations.

• Automated restore selections and options checking, which tests the validity of your current SQL Server restore selections and job options before the restore job runs.

• Hot backup copies of SQL databases during backup operations. This feature enables you to direct a copy of the actual data streams being sent to media by a SQL database to a local directory for later use.

• Backups of multiple instances.

• Integration with the Symantec Backup Exec Advanced Disk-based Backup Option (ADBO) and the Advanced Open File Option (AOFO). ADBO and AOFO are separate, add-on components of Backup Exec. The use of ADBO and AOFO can reduce both restore time and backup impact on the server.

• Standby database. If the primary SQL server fails, or is shut down for maintenance, another database called a standby database can be brought online. The standby database contains a copy of the primary server’s databases so that users can continue to access the database even though the primary server is unavailable. When the primary server is available again, the changes on the standby database must be restored back to the primary server or the changes will be lost. The databases on the primary server should then be backed up and restored on the standby database again.

  Backup Exec provides a backup option that enables you to put the database in standby mode when the log file backup completes, and a recovery completion state of Leave the database in read-only mode to create and maintain a standby database.

• Database Consistency Checks (DBCC) for each backup and restore job, including a fast database consistency check of only the physical consistency of the database.

• Full, bulk-logged, and simple recovery models. With the simple recovery model, copies of the transactions are not stored in the log file, which prevents transaction log backups from being run. Therefore, you can recover the database to the point of the last backup, but you cannot restore the database to the point of failure or to a specific point in time.

• Restores of transaction logs to a specific point in time or to a named transaction when log marks are used.

In SQL 2005 or later installations, the SQL Agent provides support for the following:

• Database snapshots.

• New copy backup jobs, which enable you to copy a SQL 2005 or later database without having to run a full SQL database backup job.

• Maintaining replication settings during redirected restores.

• Verify only restore jobs, which enable you to determine both the validity of the SQL data on the media and the ability of the destination SQL database to accept this data before the database is deleted or overwritten during a restore job.

• Back up with checksum generation. Used as a redundancy check, this option works with the Verify Only Restore Job option.

• Continuation of restore jobs when errors are detected. This feature enables you to restore as much data as possible from a corrupt database backup.

In SQL Server 2008 Enterprise Edition installations, the SQL Agent provides support for the following:

• In SQL Server 2008 Enterprise Edition installations, you can use SQL software compression for backup jobs.