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backup SQL while Service is active

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Good evening,
i'm a technician and my customer need to backup his SQL database while it is running.
I know that if someone copy SQL folders while service is running, really it doesnt work.

I d like to know what Acronis to install to backup sql while it's running. My customer has got Win7PRO used as "server" for his sql and software. He need to backup all sql and all his software daily, that's because his software is not so stable and sometime it crashes and corrupts sql database.

if he can he would like to recover to the last past day, instead of rebuild all database when crashes.

Soon he will upgrade to win10PRO.

Does Acronis support this kind of stuffs? thank you so much

Nino

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Hello Nino!

In general Copying db database files as a backup measure may or may not corrupt your db based on the DB and operations currently performed on it. Your options depend on what sort of SQL DB it is.

  • If it's Microsoft SQL Server, you'll need a "Acronis Cyber Backup 12.5 Server" license based on this licensing info.
    • With this you'll perform an application aware backup that will work even with running transactions on the db.
    • You'll also have more fine grained restore options on the db.
  • Other DB backups can be solved with running a command before and after the backup that takes the database offline, perform the backup, then bring it back online.
    • You won't have fine grained options in this case.
    • You'll have to tolerate complete db downtime for the duration of the backup.

Based on your info though, it doesn't look like you'll need fine grained control at all, so a workstation licence will suffice (standard maybe enough, look at the comparison), if you setup pre/post commands for the db to capture a consistent state. Then make daily backups and restore the server (or just related files depending on what the "server" is used for) if the problematic software crashes.

-- Peter

Hi Peter sorry for delay in answering to you!
Well, i need the first option mentioned because sql service should be running while backup. But i don't have sql password, does Acronis backup it? i explain better:
My customer has got a software for his company, and he pay software house for solving problems when it happens. They have sql password, so i sometime run acronis true image in BOOT mode for backup the while C partition where there is software, sql and so on. But i can do it weekly. so when SQL crash he lose all work since 1 week, and it's not good solution. i d like something that backup almost instanty (or each 4 hours...) all software (C:\programfile\SOFTWARE) and Sql database. We dont have sql password. Can Acronis Cyber Backup 12.5 Server do it?

Hello Nico!

You'll be able to backup while the sql server is running with the server licence. However according to section "14. Protecting Microsoft applications" in the user guide, you'll need an account to do so with appropriate priviliages. See this excerpt from said section:

The account must be a member of the Backup Operators or Administrators group on the machine and a member of the sysadmin role on each of the instances that you are going to back up.

 As for the duration of the backup it largely depends on the size of the server, your storage size, recovery frequency and recovery speed when needed. Based on your provided info though it looks like a good candidate for incremental backup every 4 hours every day and say a full backup per week. Keep the backups for the duration you expect to roll back due to invalid/corrupted data.

-- Peter

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Hello Nino.

Please see a full list of the required user rights for Application-aware backup with Acronis Cyber Backup 12.5. However, even if you decide to do a database backup (please see a comparison between application-aware and database backup here https://www.acronis.com/en-us/support/documentation/AcronisCyberBackup_12.5/index.html#39119.html), you still need credentials to access the SQL Server data (the account must be a member of the Backup Operators or Administrators group on the machine and a member of the sysadmin role on each of the instances that you are going to back up).