The following limitations exist when you configure a VMware policy to protect SQL Server:

• This list is not a comprehensive list of VMware policy limitations. For additional information on support for NetBackup in virtual environments, see the following:

  http://www.veritas.com/docs/000006177

• VMware incremental backups of SQL Server are not supported with this version of NetBackup. However, the use of Accelerator may increase the speed of full backups.

• Point-in-time restores are not supported from VMware backups.

• SQL Servers cannot be clustered.

• VMware application backups are not supported with availability groups (AGs).

• The Application State Capture (ASC) job fails and the databases are not protected if you do any of the following:

  • Disable the Virtual Machine quiesce option.

  • Exclude any data disks from the VMware policy, on the Exclude Disks tab. Be sure that any disks that you exclude do not contain SQL Server data.

• Databases are cataloged and protected only if they exist in a configuration that is supported for VMware backups. As long as there are any databases that can be protected, the ASC job continues. If you select databases for backup that exist on supported and on unsupported disks, the ASC job produces a status 1 (partially successful). The ASC job detects these situations and the job details include the result of the backup operation.

  SQL Server databases are not cataloged and backed up if they exist on the following:

  • Raw device mapping (RDMs). Make sure that the SQL Server virtual machine does not use RDM as storage for databases and transaction logs.

  • Virtual Machine Disk (vmdk) volumes that are marked as independent. Make sure that the SQL Server databases and transaction logs are not stored on independent disks.

  • Mount point volumes.

  • Virtual hard disks (VHDs).

    If NetBackup detects any database objects on a VHD disk, the ASC job fails and no SQL Server content is cataloged. All objects in the backup are not cataloged, including those that do not exist on the VHD.

  • RAID volumes.

  • ReFS file systems.

  • An excluded Windows boot disk. The ASC job detects this type of disk and treats it like an independent disk.

    The VMware backup cannot exclude for any reason the disk on which NetBackup is installed. For example, do not select the Exclude boot disk option if NetBackup is installed on the boot drive (typically C:).

• VMware policies let you exclude certain virtual disks from the VMware backup. If you want to exclude specific SQL Server components, use a MS-SQL-Server policy.