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NetApp Backup and Recovery

Create and manage Microsoft SQL Server backup policies in NetApp Backup and Recovery

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In NetApp Backup and Recovery, create your own Microsoft SQL Server backup policies that govern backup frequency, the time the backup is taken, and the number of backup files that are retained.

Note Some of these options and configuration sections are not available for all workloads.

If you import resources from SnapCenter, you might encounter some differences with policies used in SnapCenter and those used in NetApp Backup and Recovery. See Policy differences between SnapCenter and NetApp Backup and Recovery.

You can accomplish the following goals related to policies:

  • Create a local snapshot policy

  • Create a policy for replication to secondary storage

  • Create a policy for object storage settings

  • Configure advanced policy settings

  • Edit policies

  • Delete policies

View policies

  1. From the NetApp Backup and Recovery menu, select Policies.

  2. Review the policy details. For example:

    • Workload: Examples include Microsoft SQL Server, ONTAP Volumes, VMware, KVM, Hyper-V, Oracle Database, or Kubernetes.

    • Backup type: Examples include full backup and log backup.

    • Architecture: Examples include local snapshot, fan-out, cascading, disk to disk, and disk to object store.

    • Resources protected: Shows how many resources out of the total resources on that workload are protected.

    • Ransomware protection: Shows if the policy includes snapshot locking on the local snapshot, snapshot locking on secondary storage, or DataLock locking on object storage.

Create a policy

You can create policies that govern your local snapshots, replications to secondary storage, and backups to object storage. Part of your 3-2-1 strategy involves creating a snapshot of the instances, databases, applications, or VMs on the primary storage system.

Required NetApp Console role
Storage viewer, Backup and Recovery super admin, Backup and Recovery backup admin. Learn about Backup and recovery roles and privileges. Learn about NetApp Console access roles for all services.

Before you begin

If you plan on replicating to secondary storage and want to use snapshot locking on local snapshots or on remote ONTAP secondary storage, you first need to initialize the ONTAP compliance clock on the cluster level. This is a requirement for enabling snapshot locking in the policy.

For instructions on how to do this, refer to Initialize the compliance clock in ONTAP.

For information about snapshot locking in general, refer to Snapshot locking in ONTAP.

Steps

  1. From the NetApp Backup and Recovery menu, select Policies.

  2. From the Policies page, select Create new policy.

    The Policies page appears.

  3. Enter information in the Details section:

    • Workload type: Select Microsoft SQL Server.

    • Enter a policy name.

    • Select a Console agent from the Agent list.

  4. Enter information in the Backup architecture section. Choose the data flow for the backup from the list:

    • 3-2-1 fanout: Primary storage (disk) to secondary storage (disk) to cloud (object store). Creates multiple copies of data across different storage systems, such as ONTAP to ONTAP and ONTAP to object-store configurations. This can be a cloud hyperscaler object store or a private object store. Best for optimal data protection and disaster recovery. This option is not available for Amazon FSx for NetApp ONTAP.

    • 3-2-1 cascade: Primary storage (disk) to secondary storage (disk) and primary storage (disk) to cloud storage (object store). This can be a cloud hyperscaler object store or a private object store such as StorageGRID. This creates a chain of data replication across multiple systems to ensure redundancy and reliability. This option is not available for Amazon FSx for NetApp ONTAP.

    • Disk to disk: Primary storage (disk) to secondary storage (disk). The ONTAP to ONTAP data protection strategy replicates data between two ONTAP systems to ensure high availability and disaster recovery. This is typically achieved using SnapMirror, which supports both synchronous and asynchronous replication. This method keeps your data updated and available across locations for strong data protection.

    • Disk-to-object storage: Primary storage (disk) to cloud (object store). This replicates data from an ONTAP system to an object storage system. This can be a cloud hyperscaler object store or a private object store such as StorageGRID. This method is ideal for long-term data retention and archiving. This option is not available for Amazon FSx for NetApp ONTAP.

    • Disk-to-disk fanout: Primary storage (disk) to secondary storage (disk) and primary storage (disk) to secondary storage (disk). You can configure multiple secondary settings for the disk-to-disk fanout option.

    • Local snapshots: Local snapshot on the selected volume. This creates read-only, point-in-time copies of production volumes where your workloads are running. You can use local snapshots to recover from data loss or corruption, as well as to create backups for disaster recovery purposes.

  5. Provide information for the Local snapshot settings section:

    • Select the Add schedule option to select the snapshot schedule or schedules. You can have a maximum of 5 schedules.

    • Snapshot frequency: Select the frequency of hourly, daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly. The yearly frequency is not available for Kubernetes workloads.

    • Snapshot retention: Enter the number of snapshots to keep.

    • Enable log backup: Enable this option to back up logs and set the frequency and retention of the log backups. To do this, you must have already configured a log backup. See Configure log directories.

  6. Provide information for the Secondary settings section (replication to secondary storage):

    • Backup: Select the frequency of hourly, daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly.

    • Backup target: Select the target system on secondary storage for the backup.

    • Snapshot locking period: Select whether you want to enable tamper-proof snapshots. If enabled, enter the number of days, months, or years that you want to lock the snapshot.

    • Transfer to secondary: Choose when to transfer snapshots to secondary storage.

      • The ONTAP transfer schedule - Inline option is selected by default and that indicates that snapshots are transferred to the secondary storage system immediately. You don't need to schedule the backup.

      • Other options: If you choose a deferred transfer, the transfers are not immediate and you can set a schedule.

  7. Provide information for the Object store settings section (backup to object storage):

    Note The fields that appear differ depending on the provider and architecture selected.

    • Provider: Select the provider for your object store and enter the credentials in the appropriate fields (the credentials fields differ depending on the provider).

    • Backup target: Select a registered object storage target and verify that it is accessible within your backup environment.

    • IPspace: Select the IPspace to use for the backup operations. This is useful if you have multiple IPspaces and want to control which one is used for backups.

    • Schedule settings: Select the schedule that was set for the local snapshots. You can remove a schedule, but you cannot add one because the schedules are set according to the local snapshot schedules.

    • Retention copies: Enter the number of snapshots to keep for each schedule.

    • Transfer schedule for object store: Choose the ONTAP transfer schedule to back up data to object storage.

    • Tier your backups from object store to archival storage: If you choose to tier backups to archive storage (for example, AWS Glacier), select the tier option and the number of days to archive.

Configure advanced settings in the policy

Details

You can optionally configure advanced settings in the policy. You can use these options for all backup architectures and storage destinations. The available advanced options depend on the workload you select at the top of the page, so some options described here might not apply to all workloads.

Steps

  1. From the NetApp Backup and Recovery menu, select Policies.

  2. From the Policies page, select Create new policy.

  3. In the Policy > Advanced settings section, select the Select advance action menu to choose from a list of advanced settings.

  4. Enable any of the settings you want to view or change, and then select Accept.

  5. Provide the following information:

    • SnapMirror volume and snapshot format: Choose from the following options:

      • Use custom name format for snapshot copy: Choose a naming scheme for snapshots. If left blank, a timestamp is added to the end of each snapshot name.

      • Provide SnapMirror volume format: Specify a prefix, a suffix, or both to modify the default SnapMirror volume name. By default, a SnapMirror volume inherits the source volume's name.

    • Copy only backup: Choose copy-only backup (a type of Microsoft SQL Server backup) if you need to back up your resources by using another backup application.

    • Availability group settings: Select preferred backup replicas or specify a particular replica. This setting is useful if you have a SQL Server availability group and want to control which replica is used for backups.

    • Enable VM-consistent snapshot: Select whether you want to enable VM-consistent snapshots. This ensures that the newly created snapshots are consistent with the state of the virtual machine at the time of the snapshot. This is useful for ensuring that the backups can be restored successfully and that the data is in a consistent state. This does not apply to existing snapshots. For VMware workloads, you can enable this option for specific policy frequencies except hourly.

    • Backup verification: Select whether you want to enable backup verification and whether you want it immediately or later. This feature ensures that the backups are valid and can be restored successfully. We recommend that you enable this option to ensure the integrity of your backups. By default, backup verification runs from secondary storage if secondary storage is configured. If secondary storage isn't configured, backup verification runs from primary storage.

      Additionally, configure the following options:

      • Daily, Weekly, Monthly, or Yearly verification: If you chose Later as the backup verification, select the frequency of backup verification. This ensures that backups are regularly checked for integrity and can be restored successfully.

      • Backup labels: Choose a backup tier in your policy whose backups you want to be verified. Depending on your Verify on secondary setting, the tier list comes from either your primary or secondary schedules. Hourly and Log backups don't appear as they aren't eligible for verification.

      • Database consistency check: Optionally, select limits to place on database consistency checks before the backup.

      • Verify log backups: Select whether you want to verify log backups to ensure they are valid and can be restored. Select one or more verification servers. If you chose disk-to-disk or 3-2-1, also select the verification storage location.

    • SnapMirror volume and snapshot format: Optionally, enter your own snapshot name in a policy that governs the backups for Microsoft SQL Server workloads. Enter the format and custom text. If you chose to backup to secondary storage, you can also add a SnapMirror volume prefix and suffix.

    • Maximum transfer rate: To not set a limit on bandwidth usage, select Unlimited. If you want to limit the transfer rate, select Limited and select the network bandwidth between 1 and 1,000 Mbps allocated to upload backups to object storage. By default, ONTAP can use an unlimited amount of bandwidth to transfer the backup data from volumes in the system to object storage. If backup traffic affects workloads, reduce the network bandwidth for transfers.

    • Backup retries: To retry the job in case of a failure or interruption, select Enable job retries during failure. Enter the maximum number of snapshot and backup job retries and the retry time interval. The recount must be less than 10.

      Tip If the snapshot frequency is set to 1 hour, the maximum delay along with the retry count shouldn't exceed 45 minutes.

    • Ransomware scan: Select whether you want to enable ransomware scanning on each bucket. This requires DataLock locking on object storage. Enter the frequency of the scan in days. This option applies to AWS and Microsoft Azure object storage. Note that this option might incur additional charges, depending on the cloud provider.

    • Notification: Choose whether to enable email notifications for backup operations. You can select which events trigger a notification — for example, when a backup succeeds, fails, or completes with warnings.

Edit a policy

You can edit backup architecture, backup frequency, retention policy, and other settings for a policy. For Kubernetes workload policies, you can edit schedule and retention settings only.

You can add another protection level when you edit a policy, but you cannot remove a protection level. For example, if the policy is only protecting local snapshots, you can add replication to secondary storage or backups to object storage. If you have local snapshots and replication, you can add object storage. However, if you have local snapshots, replication, and object storage, you cannot remove one of these levels.

If you are editing a policy that backs up to object storage, you can enable archival.

If you imported resources from SnapCenter, you might encounter some differences policies used in SnapCenter and those used in NetApp Backup and Recovery. See Policy differences between SnapCenter and NetApp Backup and Recovery.

Required NetApp Console role

Backup and Recovery super admin. Learn about NetApp Console access roles for all services.

Steps

  1. In the NetApp Console, got to Protection > Backup and Recovery.

  2. Select the Policies option.

  3. Select the policy that you want to edit.

  4. Select the Actions Actions icon icon, and select Edit.

Delete a policy

You can delete a policy if you no longer need it.

Tip You cannot delete a policy that is associated with a workload.
Steps

  1. In the Console, go to Protection > Backup and Recovery.

  2. Select the Policies option.

  3. Select the policy that you want to delete.

  4. Select the Actions Actions icon icon, and select Delete.

  5. Confirm the action, and select Delete.