Backing up a shutdown SQL DB without a agent

[Learning_Everyd]

I think I know the answer, but wanted to bounce it off the community.  Is it possible to backup a SQL db in a down state with-out the SQL db agent?  We currently do not have the SQL db agent, but wanted to know if it was still possible. 

[AmolB]

SQL Agent is not required to backup a flat file. So take SQL backups using inbuilt tool and

then backup .bak files through NBU.

Refer to Andy Welburn's reply to the below post

https://www-secure.symantec.com/connect/forums/symantec-netbackup-use-ldf-mdf-files

[Mark_Solutions]

Agree with Amol ... i have several customers that have SQL Maintenance plans set up so that the SQL databases and transaction logs get dumped to a SQLBackups directory which is then backed up as a standard flat file backup.

It is all a matter of timing to ensure all maintenance has completed before your NetBackup backups kick in.

I would not try to just shutdown SQL and backup the mdf / ldf files as i feels "wrong" to me and does not give the sort of restore flexibility that have the SQL backups gives such as point in time recovery etc.

Hope this helps

[Learning_Everyd]

I was told the system had hundreds of databases and would take to long to set up dumps to another directory.  That's where I wanted to know if the db were offline if they couldbe backed up that way.  No .bak dumps just offline.  Mark per your reply I could, but it would cause restore issues.  Is this correct?  So from what I'm hearing it can not be done (correctly) without SQL agent and or dumps?   

[Mark_Solutions · Accepted solution]

I guess you could ask you DB guys what they think - if SQL was shut down and you backed it all up then i guess you could try one and just drop the files back where they came from and see if the database started up OK - but I dont think it would give you half the facilities of using dumps or the agent

Based on what you have said about the number of databases etc you would be better off using the agent to be honest - i wouldnt trust flat file backups