BE 15 does not exclude SQL DB files from backups
Hi, our customer is using BE 15 on Windows Server 2008 R2 as the backup server. They have a few MS SQL servers (MS SQL 2008/2014 on Windows Server 2008 R2). These servers have two types of BE backups: SDR backups (all local drives are backed up) and MS SQL database backups. According to some Veritas KB, the MS SQL database files should be automatically excluded from the full system backups (SDR backups). However, we tested and found the MS SQL database files in these clients are backed up by the SDR backup jobs.
Does anyone have any idea about this? Are there any pre-requisites to exclude the SQL database files from the backups? Do we need to set anything on the BE sever and/or client to enable this exclusion?
Thanks in advance.
For SDR enabled backup, is the Microsoft SQL instance selected in the backup job ?
Also, is this key present on the BE server - https://www.veritas.com/support/en_US/article.TECH92375
Lastly, verbatim from https://www.veritas.com/support/en_US/article.HOWTO24057
For example, .MDF and .IDF files should not be part of the backup because they are opened for exclusive use by the SQL system. These files will be automatically excluded for backup by a feature called Active File Exclusion. If this exclusion did not happen during a non-snapshot backup, these files would appear as in use - skipped. If this exclusion did not happen during a snapshot backup, the files would be backed up in a possible inconsistent state, which could create restore issues.
As per the last 2 lines, exclusion may not happen.