We have a couple of development VMs with very large SQL databases, copies of the production environment. I had originally set them up with OS backups as VMs but also with the Netbackup SQL client installed using an ordinary SQL backup policy for the classic SQL backup across the network. Ordinary VM backups are not a problem because we use a Netbackup VM proxy media server which reads the ESX datastores and so copies the data across the fibre and then writes deduplicated data across the lan to our Data Domain storage. This means not much data crosses the lan. But these two VMs have SQL databases totalling over 2tb of data - and as we're using the Netbackup SQL client all of which goes entirely across the lan, un-deduplicated and takes 8 hours to complete.
So I'm hoping that by using the 'SQL Server Recovery' option in the VM policy it would utilise the same data path as for OS backups of the VM: fibre to vm proxy and then deduplicated across the network. Is this true - how is SQL backed up via this method? What are the advantages? I originally thought it would somehow snapshot and read the underlying mdf/ldf files. But I understand the Netbackup SQL client is still involved, but I don't understand the method... How does the Netbackup SQL client interact with the VM backup policy?
The NetBackup AdminGuide MSSQL Win pdf is a masterpiece of brevity - it really couldn't provide less information while still being able to claiming that it tells you how to do it :-)
Targest servers are Win 2003 x32, master and vmware proxy media server are Win2008 R2.
Thanks