SharePoint databases not being backed up in 11d

[TrevorHJ]

Can anyone throw some light onto this issue for me, I have BU Exec 11d with service pack 1 so it should backup SharePoint 2007 server.  I tell the BU software what to backup i.e. all the databases in my SharePoint site and it goes through the motions, but when I look at the backup the databases are not there and it gives no errors.

What is going on, is it possible to backup theses databases?  I would have thought so as as a corruption on one would only need that database restoring, I don't want to have to restore the Farm each time something goes wrong.

PS all patches later than SP1 are also installed. I use SQL 2005 Express 4GB max edition for the database server.

Trevor

Message Edited by TrevorHJ on 11-28-2007 05:45 AM

[Ben_L_]

You aren't getting any errors in the job and you can't see the information available to restore in the catalogs?  Just trying to make sure I read your post correctly.

[TrevorHJ]

Thats correct, you can see the databases in the SharePoint folder, you can tell BU Exec to back them up and it does not complain.  Then you go to restore an individual database or all of them and they are not there to restore.  All I get are three security cert's, the SQL transaction log and SQL Server Database Primary Data File which are not the 12 or so SharePoint databases I expected to see.  I can use SharePoint to backup the Farm and BU Exec to backup the folder where I keep those backups, but it will not backup the databases in the MMSQL\Data folder.

[Ben_L_]

When you are looking at the restore selections for the SharePoint server, are you looking at the databases under the SQL selections or the SharePoint selections.  You are not going to see the individual databases under SQL if that is were you are looking.

[TrevorHJ]

This is where the databases are that I am trying to backup.

C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office Servers\12.0\Data\MSSQL.2\MSSQL\Data

If this is the SQL section that I will not see the databases in then where do I restore individual databases from?

[Ben_L_]

That explains it. 

Backup Exec actively excludes database files from backup as they would be in use if you tried to do a flat file backup of them.

To get around this either backup the backup you are making through SQL, if you are doing this.  Or use the SQL or Sharepoint agent to backup the databases.  The SQL and Sharepoint agents do live backups of the database using SQLVDI to query the database and get a dump of it.

[TrevorHJ]

OK thanks for the information, I will look into doing backups through SQL.

Trevor