Introduction
Almost every company uses a database server to store critical data. Whether this is Microsoft SQL Server, MySQL, or, for example, Oracle. This data must be secured using a backup. It doesn’t matter whether this database server is hosted locally in a hybrid environment or in the Cloud such as an IaaS VM. A database server is almost always essential to any business process and downtime should be avoided at all costs
Why Database Backups
Securing a running database requires extra attention compared to a regular file or OS backup. Among other things, it must handle current database transactions that are being executed (or queued for execution) at the time the backup takes place. An SQL query can take some time and when you do a backup at the same time, it’s possible half of the backup data contains data before the query and the other half has backup data after the successful execution of the query. This can result in a corrupt database when you try to restore this backup. Database servers use database transactions to log these transactions. These database transactions are stored in the transaction log, which is stored locally. It’s best practice to back up these log files and delete them afterward to free up disk space.
Database Backups using BDRSuite
If there is a problem with the database, it is desirable to restore only the database and not the entire VM. In addition, you would want to go one step further and not restore a complete database but only the specific table of that particular database. Let this now be possible with application-aware backup in combination with Vembu BDRSuite! (Other applications can do this as well, but I will focus on Vembu BDRSuite)
Using native Windows technology (VSS snapshots), data from a server can be backed up while transactions occur on the server. The server does not have to be down for a backup. A copy of the data is made quickly underwater while the transactions are put on hold. When the backup is complete, the transactions are executed, and the backup package makes a copy of the snapshot that contains all the data. BDRSuite sees on this volume the databases such as Microsoft Exchange, SQL Server, MySql, etc., and ensures that they are correctly written to the backup location. You can choose to perform specific backup tasks before or after, and you can choose to clean up the transaction log to free up additional disk space.
The benefits of application-aware backups increase if you decide or are forced to perform a restore. I will illustrate this with some examples:
A user is deleted from a database, including its history
It is now possible to restore only a single table. During the restore, you can specify which backup set (date and time) must be used. After the restore, the deleted user is added to the database and can log in again. This all happens online and has no impact on other users. If you are not using application aware backups then you have to restore the entire server, including the OS. This means an impact for all users and, most likely, data loss.
A complete database has been corrupted
Due to circumstances, a complete database has been corrupted, and you want to be back online as soon as possible. In this scenario, you can restore an entire database online, and all other services on the server in question (e.g., File services) will remain operational. After performing the restore, the database is back online, and you don’t have to do anything else.
You want to go back in time
Suppose, due to circumstances – for example, a user has made an unauthorized change – and you want the entire database to be restored using the time you specify. So that could be a specific date and timestamp. Using the backup sets and transaction logs, the restore can be performed and “replayed” precisely to the time you specify. You don’t have to do anything with the operating system.
There is a disaster and you want to be “online” again as soon as possible
Suppose, due to circumstances, a complete server with a database is offline. You can now use application-aware backups in several ways to quickly get back online. You can restore a complete server, including the database on the same hardware or in the Cloud. Because you have correctly backed up the database, you can be sure it will start up again and come online.
Another scenario is that you have a standby server. You turn this server on, and then you only need to restore the database backup to this server. When this restore is done, you are back online, and users can use the database again. The advantage of this is that the server is very quickly back online.
It will now be clear what the benefits of application-aware backup are and what this means in practice. Vembu currently supports Microsoft SQL Server, MySql, and very soon Oracle. If your company also uses one of these databases in a production environment, I would advise you to use this possibility. Vembu offers special licenses for this. Vembu also provides a simple web-based interface to perform restores easily and quickly. This way, even a non-DBA person can efficiently perform a database restore.
More information about backing up databases with Vembu BDRSuite:
https://www.bdrsuite.com/vembu-backup-for-applications/
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