Protect Amazon RDS Custom for SQL Server

Once you have registered Amazon RDS Custom for SQL Server as a source, you're ready to protect the Amazon RDS Custom for SQL Server database.

To protect your Amazon RDS Custom for SQL Server databases:

1. In Cloud Protection Service, under Sources, find the Microsoft SQL Server source, click the Actions menu (⋮), and select Protect.

2. Click Add Objects. Browse through the Custom RDS SQL Server instances and select the databases that you want to protect. Click Continue.

   If appropriate for your organization, enable Auto Protect.

   Clickto turn on Auto Protect. By enabling this option:

   • All the RDS Custom SQL server databases that are added to the RDS Custom SQL Server EC2 instance in the future are automatically added to the Protection Group and are protected from the next protection run.

   • All the databases that are removed from the server instace in the future are automatically removed from the Protection Group and are not protected from the next protection run. The existing backup for the user is preserved until the snapshot expires.

   For example, you create a Protection Group that backs up a RDS Custom SQL Server instance. The Protection Group runs for two weeks and then a new database is added to the SQL Server. The next time the Protection Group runs, if the object hierarchy has been refreshed on the Cohesity cluster, the new database is also backed up even though the new database has not been explicitly selected to be included in the Protection Group. The object hierarchy is automatically refreshed every four hours.

   To manually refresh the object hierarchy, select Data Protect as a Service > Sources, find the source in the list and click . To exclude an object from Auto Protect, click .

   • Indicates an Auto Protected object.

   • Use this option to exclude SQL databases from the protection group. Excluded objects are not protected. The icon indicates that an ancestor of the object is Auto Protected but this object is explicitly excluded.

     To exclude a database from the protection group, specify the absolute path of the database to be excluded from the backup at a protection job level. You can optionally use:

     • Wildcard Exclusion - You can optionally use the Wildcard * in any location in the search string to exclude all the matching databases from the backup at a protection job level.

     • Regex Exclusion - You can use the RegEx string name match and manual user selection to exclude DBs from backup at a protection job level.

   You can use the exclude database feature only if Auto Protect is enabled for a protection.

   Protection of dismounted databases, recovery database types, and deleted databases are automatically skipped by the Protection Group.

   After defining the filer click Apply to save the selection.

   The following table lists the examples for excluding objects in a SQL database:

   Considerations

   Consider the following when using the Auto Protect option on the backup job:

   • If new databases are added on the host, the existing filters are applied on the newly added databases. For example, if the exclude filter matches the newly added databases then these databases will be excluded in the backup job.
   • If any system databases are excluded by the filters in a SQL server, it will exclude all the system databases belonging to that SQL server.
   • When defining filters to exclude AG databases, ensure that the filters are configured on all the AG hosts. For example, to exclude an AG database and if the AG database has 4 hosts, then ensure that the filters are defined on all the four AG hosts.

3. Choose a policy to specify backup frequency and retention.* If you don't have a policy, you can easily create one.
   

   If you select a policy that includes Log Backup (Database), the Log Backup Settings option will be enabled.

4. Click More Options and review the following settings:

   Microsoft SQL Settings

   • Make Full Backups Copy-only. Enable if you want full backups to be copy-only backups so they do not affect the differential base. Note that copy-only full backups do not take log backups even if the policy schedules them.

   • WITH Clause. Define the WITH clause that you want to use to customize the backup. For more information, see BACKUP (Transact-SQL) in the Microsoft documentation.

     The WITH clause text box allows you to invoke the SQL Server general options during backup and recovery. The text field accepts any SQL Server general backup or recovery option like “ENCRYPTION”. Note that specifying an option could add to the overall duration of the backup or restore process.

     This is the full/incremental WITH clause with the default value "WITH MAXTRANSFERSIZE = 4194304, BUFFERCOUNT = 64".

   • Number of Streams. Define the number of .bak files you want to create for better backup performance. By default, CohesityCloud Protection Service creates three .bak files for each database backup for better backup performance.

   • Log Chain Break Auto-Trigger Out of Band Incremental Backup: When toggled ON, the out of band incremental backup will be triggered at the end of the log backup when the log chain is broken.

     If a scheduled backup is already running for the database group, the out of band incremental backup will be triggered after the scheduled backup.

   • New Database Auto-Trigger Out of Band Incremental Backup: When toggled ON, the out of band incremental backup will be triggered at the end of the log backup when the new database is detected.

     If a scheduled backup is already running for the database group, the out of band incremental backup will be triggered after the scheduled backup.

   • User Databases. Select how to handle AG databases during backup.

   • System Databases. Select whether to back up or skip system databases.

   • Databases to Backup. Select the User Databases and System Databases. You can Use Server Preferences or Override Preferences (the options include Primary Only, Secondary Only, Preferred Secondary, and Any).

   Log Backup Settings
   Cohesity enhances the SQL Server native T-log backup and restoration performance by splitting the T-log backup into multiple backup files and ingesting them in parallel through the Cohesity nodes.

   • WITH Clause. Define the WITH clause that you want to use to customize the backup. For more information, see BACKUP (Transact-SQL) in the Microsoft documentation.

     The WITH clause text box allows you to invoke the SQL Server general options during backups and restores. The text field accepts any SQL Server general backup or restore option like “ENCRYPTION”. Note that specifying an option could add to the overall duration of the backup or restore process.

     The default WITH clause is “WITH MAXTRANSFERSIZE = 4194304, BUFFERCOUNT = 16".

   • Number of Streams. Define the number of .bak files you want to create for better backup performance. The default number of streams for log backup is 1.

5. Click Protect.

The backups start immediately after you protect the objects, regardless of the time you set for the protection run.

CohesityCloud Protection Service starts backing up the databases you selected.

When choosing or configuring your policy, ensure the full, incremental (SQL Differential), and T-Log backup retention periods are properly configured. The retention period requirements for SQL VDI are identical to those for SQL native backups. For example, we recommend aligning your retention periods for each backup type along these lines:

• Full Backups. Daily at 1 AM with a 7-day retention.

• Incremental Backups (equivalent to SQL Differential backups). Every 12 hours with a 3-day retention.

• T-Log Backups. Every 15 minutes with a 1-day retention.

Next > When the first protection run completes, you will be ready to Recover Amazon RDS Custom for SQL Server when and if you need to.