About SQL Server filegroup backups
In addition to database backups, you can use separate images to back up the logical filegroups and files that comprise databases.
Filegroups can be backed up in the following ways:
Filegroup backups | A backup can be created from a single filegroup. Scripts for filegroup backups are created when you select individual filegroups in the object browser of the backup database dialog box. |
Read-write filegroup backups | This backup contains only the read-write filegroups in a database. If all of the filegroups in a database are set to read-write, then the read-write filegroup backup has the same content as a full database backup. You can create scripts for read-write filegroup backups when you select individual databases and select the "read-write filegroups" type of backup. |
Backup of all a filegroup's database files | You effectively back up a filegroup when you back up all of the database files in the filegroup. |
Caution:
Since the user defines the contents of a partial database backup, NetBackup for SQL Server does not use them for staging recovered backups. So if you rely on NetBackup to stage database recovery for you, the partial backup may not be a good choice.
For SQL Server legacy backup policies, you can also perform partial database backups. In this case, a database backup contains an improvised selection of filegroups that the user can select. You can create a template for partial database backups when you select individual databases and select the type of backup. The template is created with all of the filegroups commented-out. You can choose the filegroups to include in the partial backup by removing the comments from the filegroups.