SQL Backup in Vmware

[architects]

Hi,

I have a test enviroment with a couple of VM's on vsphere 4.0 U2 and am running NBU 7.0.1 Master on a Windows 2k8 Vm and media server on a physical box again on Win2k8 enterprise R2 standard.

I have a couple of customers who would like to know if they can viurtualize SQL 2005 & 2008 and run consistent backup's in similar kind of infrastructure. I am sure about the windows VSS and file system consistency with it however I am not sure if VSS can queisce SQL DB as well and generate crash consistant backup's.

I would be using NBU for taking the snapshots and have latest version of vmware tools and VMX-7 for all the vm's. Please let me know if the above is true and if not what is the best way to backup SQL DB's?

Regards,

A

[EVW]

You can setup a SQL Server Maintenance Plan from SQL2008 that exports the database into one file every night. It is very easy to backup these BAK-files with your normal backup (no need for VSS or NBU agents). If you want a detailed backup / restore scenario (backup and restore of individual tables) you can install a NBU SQL Agent in your VM.

http://www.sqlservercurry.com/2009/04/create-maintenance-plan-in-sql-server.html

[architects]

thanks for the info however i still need to know if VSS alone would work or not or my options are:

1. NBU agent for SQL

2. SQL Server Maintenance Plan

3. Custom Script

Let me know what you think.

(i thought VSS would work on any MS OS and application, but am not sure)

Regards,

A

[EVW]

VSS is an built-in service that other applications can use to make live backups. So you still need one of the mentioned options to backup a database. Backup software may need VSS or use their own backupagents to backup open files.