How does NetBackup for SQL Server back up a database?

When a backup is executed, NetBackup for SQL Server does the following: creates a backup script, generates an SQL Server backup statement, logs into SQL Server, and delivers the SQL statement to SQL Server through ODBC. Next, the database agent connects to SQL Server through one or more VDI objects. One virtual device is created per backup stripe. In addition, a VxBSA session is initiated for each stripe. These separate sessions allow NetBackup to start a backup job for each stream that is generated from SQL Server.

When the backup completes, the database agent obtains detailed properties of the object that was backed up, including its relationships to other objects. The agent writes this information to the NetBackup catalog and associates it with the backup image. If there are multiple stripes, then the metadata is associated with the first backup image. The adjunct stripes are associated with one another based upon a common naming convention.