Troubleshooting and Disaster Recovery › General Considerations for Arcserve Backup and the Agent

General Considerations for Arcserve Backup and the Agent

The following general considerations apply to Arcserve Backup and the Agent for Microsoft SQL Server:

• Arcserve Backup does not support special characters (for example, /, \, *, <, >, or ?) in file names, FileGroup names, and database names. The Arcserve Backup Agent for Microsoft SQL does not support brackets ( [ ] ) in database, FileGroup, or logical file names.
• When restoring a file or FileGroup, if there are no log sessions to follow the file or FileGroup session, Arcserve Backup cannot verify if the file was modified. As a result, it cannot identify the final recovery completion state. By default, it chooses the option Leave database non-operational, but able to restore additional transaction logs. Each time you back up a file or FileGroup, ensure that you back up a log immediately afterwards.The "Backup Transaction Log After Database" option is recommended.
• The Microsoft Windows Small Business Server 2003 SharePoint database is stored in a Microsoft SQL Server Desktop Engine (MSDE) instance. The SharePoint instance does not support SQL-native authentication. You must use Windows authentication for this database instance.
• When you log into Microsoft SQL Server using Windows authentication to perform Virtual Devices-based backup and restore operations, you must have system administrator rights for Microsoft SQL Server. This is a Microsoft requirement.
• The Arcserve Backup Agent for Microsoft SQL Server does not support backing up and restoring SQL Server databases where the sum of the characters representing the instance name, the database name, the file group name, and the data file name exceeds 170 characters.
• Microsoft SQL Server 2008 introduces a data type called FILESTREAM, which stores large blocks of binary data in files on disk. FILESTREAM data is stored in logical SQL Server files that exist as directories on disk. SQL Server does not properly report the size of FILESTREAM data, and the size of this data is calculated directly by the Agent. If this data includes a large number of records, this calculation may be very time-consuming and cause delays when querying database properties during Browse and Backup.
• If an error message appears when you restore and move a database that uses a long file name, rename the database files using shorter file names and perform the restore operation on the database.
• When backing up or restoring a SQL Server database, the SendTimeOut and ReceiveTimeOut parameters define how long the Arcserve Backup Backup Server waits for a response from the agent. This prevents problems such as network errors from causing jobs to wait forever for a response that might not come. Once this time-out period expires, the waiting job fails with a network error.

  However, when a large remote SQL Server database is restored, particularly when it involves creation of SQL data files, such as when you restore to a different SQL Server, the Agent for Microsoft SQL cannot reply immediately because SQL Server takes some time to create the files, and the agent must wait for this to complete before it can respond.

  The default timeout value is set to 1200 seconds (20 minutes). This should be extended when you restore a large SQL Server database involving large data files. A large SQL Server database (60 GB) might require the value to be as long as 7200 seconds (120 minutes). In general, the default value (1200) can handle most database restores, as well as network errors. However, if you have a network timeout error on a large SQL Server database restore operation, you should increase the time-out value. After the restore is done, you should reset the value to 1200.

  The SendTimeOut and ReceiveTimeOut keys can be found on the Arcserve Backup Server machine under:

  HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\ComputerAssociates\CA ARCserve Backup\Base\Task\Remote

  Note: These settings apply to all agents which operate under the Universal Agent service.

• Backup with Compare and Backup with Scan Tape are not performed on agent sessions.
• The Arcserve Backup Manager and the Arcserve Backup Universal Agent must be stopped before uninstalling and reinstalling Arcserve Backup Agent for Microsoft SQL Server if they are installed on the same server as the agent.
• If a TCP/IP connection fails, or if the Port number has changed, restart the Universal Agent Service.
• To support pass-through authentication of account logon events for computers in a domain, the NetLogon service must be started.
• In a cluster environment, run the Universal Agent as a Domain Administrator, rather than as LocalSystem. This is to prevent a conflict of access privileges between the agent and Microsoft SQL Server when backing up Microsoft SQL Server databases.