Backup Concepts
Appendix C: Backup and Recovery Best Practices 115
Backup and Restore Considerations in Microsoft SQL Server Cluster Environments
CA ARCserve Backup supports clustered Microsoft SQL Server in the Microsoft
Clustering Server (MSCS) environment.
Use CA ARCserve Backup and the Agent for Microsoft SQL Server to back up and
restore clustered Microsoft SQL Servers just like any nonclustered instance of
Microsoft SQL Server, with the following important differences:
■
You must install the Agent for Microsoft SQL Server on the local drives of
every node in the cluster.
Note:
For information about installing the Agent for Microsoft SQL Server,
see Install the Agent in a Standard Microsoft SQL Server Environment.
■
If the node on which the clustered Microsoft SQL Server instance is currently
running fails over during a backup job, the backup job fails too, and you
must restart the job if no makeup job is generated.
Backup Concepts
A
backup
is a copy or image of a database, Transaction Log, or collection of files
or FileGroups that is stored on another device (typically, a media drive). A
differential backup
is a collection of changes or differences that have been made
within a database and can be combined with an earlier backup to create a newer
image. Use CA ARCserve Backup and the Agent for Microsoft SQL Server to
generate backups using the SQL Server Backup statement.
To back up a database is to create a copy of its tables, data, and user-defined
objects. In the event of media failure, you can recover your databases if you
made regular backups of your databases and their Transaction Logs.
Important!
Transaction Logs are not backed up or truncated during full or
differential database backups. To back up and truncate Transaction Logs,
perform a separate Transaction Log backup or use the Backup Transaction Log
After Database option, and select the "Remove inactive entries from Transaction
log" option to truncate the log files. For more information about Transaction Log
backups, see Transaction Log Backups in this chapter.
When a Microsoft SQL Server backup is started in CA ARCserve Backup, the
Agent for Microsoft SQL Server initiates an online backup of a database or
Transaction Log. This backup takes place while the database is active. The
backup captures the state of the data at the moment the statement is executed.
No partial transactions are captured. Any data changes made after the backup
begins are not captured in the backed up copy of the database.
