SQL Server Agent and VMware??

[faster4233]

Hi,

It seems the BE Agent for VMware automatically backups up SQL server instances on VMware guests atleast if the WIndows Remote Client is installed?  If i dont want to backup an SQL instance and as such not buy an additional liciense how do you get round this as you cant deslect it?

Thanks for the help. 

[AmolB]

Agent for VMWare will allow you to backup entire VMDK, if you want to perform granular backup and 

restore then you need to install remote agent on the VM (does not need license for remote agent)

But if you want to backup SQL instance hosted on VM then you need Agent for SQL license else

deselect it from the selection list.

Note: Agent for VMware will allow you to install remote agent on all the VM's hosted on a single machine

without remote agent license. License key is required for application like SQL, Exchange, Lotus etc.

[CraigV]

...have you looked at putting in an exclusion for the SQL instances?

[faster4233]

Hi, I cant deselct the option as it isnt listed in the VMware backup section.  It just automatically targets it with GRT enabled so the SQL databases appear in the recovery lists.  I presume this will count as an SQL Agent liciense from the media servers point of view?

[teiva-boy]

Just because your VMware guest backups contain SQL databases, you do NOT need to buy SQL licenses.

Without the license you just wont be able to restore databases back "hot."  

If you are running into capacity issues, you install a Remote Agent for Windows (It's included with the VMware agent) and backup the clients in a traditional method, and create exclusions to NOT backup anything SQL related.  Backing up the VMDK doesn't give you this functionality as VMware doesn't allow that level of granularity yet.

[pkh · Accepted solution]

When you backup and restore the ENTIRE vmdk with any SQL instance in it, you can do so without having a SQL agent licence and you would not be violating any licencing terms.

However,without a SQL licence, you would not be able to select a single SQL database and just restore that, instead of restoring the entire vmdk.  If you want to do GRT restore of a single SQL database, then you would need to install a SQL agent licence for each VM that you want to do GRT restore of SQL databases.