Applicable Products
These instructions apply to the following products:
- Barracuda Intronis Backup - MSP
About SQL Backups
Barracuda Networks offers native Microsoft SQL Server backup that enables MSPs to protect unlimited versions of their clients’ SQL databases from business continuity and disaster recovery (BCDR) threats like user error or equipment failure.
Military-grade data encryption keeps your SQL backups safe in the Barracuda secure dual-coast data centers. The Barracuda central web-based platform allows you to back up SQL with the same tool you use to protect everything else.
General Considerations
Make sure the software has SQL admin credentials.
For any errors, check the SQL Management Studio.
When backing up Microsoft SQL databases, create a specific job using the Barracuda SQL plug-in. To do this, instead of selecting the SQL database folder location in a file backup, create a new backup set in the Management Portal, and select the SQL type.
The Barracuda SQL plug-in uses the same API calls that Microsoft makes when you select a database in SQL for back up.
The ECHOplatform agent creates .bak files of the databases in the temporary folder chosen in the software and then backs them up to Barracuda servers.
Barracuda allows you to back up both local and remote SQL servers using the ECHOplatform agent software.
Whenever possible, install the software directly on the SQL server (best practice).
To back up a remote SQL server, you must point the ECHOplatform agent software to a temporary directory on the remote SQL server, where the SQL .bak file is created. Make sure that the user (what the ECHOplatform agent service is running as) has permission to write to that directory and that the user (what your SQL service is running as) has permission to access that temporary directory.
Specific Restrictions and Recommendations
When you create a SQL backup set in the software you can search for SQL servers and instances that exist in your environment. You can then select the method with which to authenticate with that SQL server. You can choose Windows authentication or SQL authentication.
Windows authentication uses the credentials of the Backup Agent service (the ECHOplatform agent uses the Local System account by default) to connect to the SQL instance.
SQL authentication allows you to select a user, such as a SQL administrator account, and plug in the credentials of that user.
You can then refresh your list of databases to view all of the databases on the instance you have selected to back up. You can select a single database or you can select multiple ones. You can also de-select specific databases from the backup.
SQL backups are scheduled by default according to Microsoft best practice of having one full backup per week with six differential backups. Barracuda keeps SQL backups on a weekly basis, by default keeping four weeks of SQL data. You can configure the software to keep as little as one week of data.
Your first backup of the databases is a true full copy.
Day-to-day differentials back up the transactional changes since your most recent full backup. The weekly full backup uses the ECHOplatform agent Intelliblox technology to run a block-level differential on the previous full backup.
Configuring SQL Databases to be Backed Up by the ECHOplatform Agent
To back up a database successfully, the database mode in SQL needs to be set to Normal. SQL is not able to back up databases that are in Shutdown mode.
To add or subtract databases from the backup set in the Barracuda wizard, the databases must be set to Normal mode.
You can make the change to the database mode within SQL Management Studio.
In addition to having the database set to Normal mode, make sure that the AutoClose option is disabled for each database you want to back up. AutoClose shuts down a database when the last user logs out, that prevents the ECHOplatform agent software from accessing the data to back up.
Having databases set to full recovery mode in SQL forces the ECHOplatform agent software to make full backups instead of true differential ones.
Intelliblox technology allows block-level differentials on previous backups, but the ECHOplatform agent has to copy all of the SQL transaction logs for every backup, creating larger files.
Full recovery mode specifies that all database transaction logs be saved so that you can restore to very specific transactions in the database history.
The recommended configuration is to set your databases to simple recovery mode in SQL.
This mode backs up and truncates the SQL transaction logs that make your daily differential backups much smaller. However, simple mode does not have the same level of granularity to restore specific points in database transaction history.
When backing up SQL Express data, point the software's temporary folder to the same folder where SQL Express generates backup files. SQL already has permission to write to this location when creating .bak files.
SQL Permissions
The ECHOplatform agent service needs to be installed on all computers/servers being backed up. The Backup Agent performs all:
- Backups
- Restores
- Deletes
The Backup Agent runs as a user (Local System by default) and takes the permissions of that account when conducting backups.
The Backup Agent user needs to have a log in for SQL and permissions to back up databases, or you need to set the job to use SQL authentication.
For best results, run the Backup Agent service as an administrator user.
Running the Backup Agent Service as a User
To run the Backup Agent service as a user, perform the following steps.
- At the Windows Start menu, right-click Computer, and select Manage.
- In the left-pane, expand Services and Applications, and select Services.
- Right-click Backup Agent, and click Stop
- Right-click Backup Agent again, and click Properties, and then click the Log On tab.
- Select the This account: radio button, and then click the Browse button.
- In the text box at the bottom, type in the name of the authorized user you want to run the service as, click Check Names, and then, click OK.
- Type and confirm the user’s password, and then click OK.
- Right-click Backup Agent, and then click Start.