Restoring multistreamed SQL Server backups

When you use the NetBackup MS SQL Client, backups using multiple stripes are automatically restored using the same number of stripes. Select the object you want to restore and NetBackup finds all of the related backups and restore them. Upon restore, all of the streams must also be available at the same time.

If you specified multiple stripes for a non-snapshot backup, then the number of backup streams that you specified was created. NetBackup names these streams, for example:

juneberry.MSSQL7.COLE.db.pubs.~.7.001of003.20140908200234..C
juneberry.MSSQL7.COLE.db.pubs.~.7.002of003.20140908200234..C
juneberry.MSSQL7.COLE.db.pubs.~.7.003of003.20140908200234..C

To create your own batch file to restore a striped object, specify only the first stripe name with the NBIMAGE keyword. NetBackup for SQL Server finds the remaining ones automatically. More information is available about the backup names that are used for SQL Server objects.

If you specified multiple stripes for any Snapshot Client backup, which streams the frozen image to tape, then NetBackup divides the number of component files equally among the number of stripes. If the number of files is less than the specified number of stripes, then the agent performs the backup using only as many stripes as there are files.

With SQL Server backups that are performed with Snapshot Client, NetBackup identifies all of the backup streams by the same name. They are differentiated by NetBackup by their backup IDs.

juneberry.MSSQL7.COLE.db.Northwind.~.7.001of003.20141012131132..C

In your recovery environment, you may have fewer drives available for restores than you used for backups. In this situation, SQL Server times out while it waits for the additional backup images to be mounted. To prevent this time out, modify the recovery batch file to specify the number of drives that are available for restore.

Consider, for example, if you had performed a backup using 5 drives, and only 2 are available for recovery. In the recovery batch file, change the stripes parameter from STRIPES 5 to STRIPES 2. This change causes SQL Server to request two backup images at a time until all five images are restored.