Instances - Microsoft SQL Server - How To

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Modify an Instance

Delete an Instance

Add a SQL Server Instance

Change Account for Accessing Instances

Change Account for Executing Pre/Post Commands (Data Protection)

Change Account for Executing Pre/Post Commands (Data Recovery)

Set the VDI Time-out Value for Large SQL Database Restores

Enable VSS of a SQL Instance

Modify an Instance

Required Capability: See Capabilities and Required Actions

To modify an Instance

From the CommCell Browser, right-click the instance you want to modify, and then click Properties from the shortcut menu.
Click the General tab of the Instance properties box to change the required access information for this instance.
If your agent uses the Accounts tab, use this tab to specify the Windows account used by the system. For MySQL iDataAgent, use this tab to specify the MySQL Server user account.
If your agent uses the Restore View Names tab, use this tab to enter or modify a list of text patterns for the view through which the system displays a database's data documents when you browse.
If your agent has the Security tab, you can view CommCell resource associations to enable or disable user groups that can perform system operations on associated resources.
For an Oracle instance, click the Details tab to change the database connect string and other optional parameters.
For an Oracle RAC instance, go to the next step. Otherwise, go to Step 12.
Click the Details tab, and type or select values for the fields at the bottom of the dialog box as appropriate. For the DB2 DPF instance, to associate a database partition with a different client, click the affected partition in the DB2 Partition Clients field, click Modify, and click from the list in the Edit Directory Share Name Pair dialog box the name of the new client for the partition. Then click OK.
Click the Oracle instance (Client/Instance/Status) that you want to modify. Then click Modify.
In the Update Instance dialog box, update the desired field values by typing or browsing as appropriate. Then click OK.
Repeat the previous two steps for each Oracle instance that you want to modify.
From the Storage Device tab(s), select storage policy copies to be used for, as applicable, data backups, command line data backups and log backups. Within these tabs you can click Data Paths to display the details of the data paths associated with the primary storage policy copy of the selected storage policy.
For the MySQL iDataAgent, select the storage policy for the log backups from the Log Backups tab.
If your agent uses the Software Compression tab, and you want to enable software compression for the selected backups, click the tab and select the appropriate option.
If you want to enable data encryption, from the Encryption tab select encryption settings for third-party or RMAN command line backups.
Click OK to save the configuration changes.
A message advises you to schedule backups for your new instance. It is recommended you elect to set a schedule now. If you click No, this procedure is now complete. If you click Yes, a dialog box prompts you to back up all subclients of this instance.
Click Yes. The Backup Options dialog box appears, which allows you to create the necessary schedules.
From the Backup Options dialog box, select the type of backup that you want to schedule.
If you want to access Advanced Backup Options, click Advanced.
After selecting the backup type and any advanced options, click OK. The Schedule Details dialog box appears.
From the Schedule Details tab of the Schedule Details dialog box, select the scheduling options that you want to apply, then click OK.

Delete an Instance

Before You Begin

For most agents except Oracle and SQL Server, you cannot delete an instance if there is only one instance present for an agent. To delete the final instance for most agents except the ones identified, you must first remove the agent software from the client computer. For Oracle RAC, which does not involve agent software, you can delete the instance under the RAC pseudo-client.
When you delete a specific instance positioned in the level below the corresponding agent or pseudo-client in the CommCell Console, the following actions occur:
- The corresponding backup data for that instance becomes immediately unavailable, thus making it inaccessible for restore purposes. In effect, the backup data is deleted.
- All child levels contained within the level are deleted in the CommCell Browser.
- All job schedules and job histories that pertain to any of the levels within the deleted instance are deleted.
If you delete an Oracle iDataAgent instance included within an Oracle RAC instance (node), the backup data is not deleted, and it is available for restore by another eligible client.
You cannot delete an instance if it is being backed up. Attempts to delete an instance under such conditions cause the deletion to fail. If a backup is in progress, either wait for the backup to complete or kill the backup job using the Job Manager. Once the backup is no longer in progress, you can delete the instance level.

Required Capability: See Capabilities and Required Actions

To delete an instance positioned in the level below the corresponding agent or pseudo-client

From the CommCell Browser, right-click the instance that you want to delete, click All Tasks and then click Delete.
Click Yes to confirm the deletion. (Clicking No cancels the deletion and retains the node.)
Type the requested phrase in the Enter Confirmation Text dialog box and click OK. This should delete the instance.

To delete an Oracle iDataAgent instance included within an Oracle RAC instance (node)

Right-click the Oracle RAC instance, click Properties, and click Details.
Click the instance that you want to delete within Client/Instance/Status and click Delete.
Repeat the previous step for each Oracle iDataAgent instance (except the last one remaining) within the Oracle RAC instance that you want to delete.
Click OK. This should delete the Oracle iDataAgent instance(s).

With the exceptions noted above, you can no longer access the corresponding backup data for restore purposes.

Add a SQL Server Instance

Before You Begin

You must create a Windows user who has Local Administrator rights to the computer and who is a member of the SQL sysadmin fixed server role for the instance. This account is used to perform jobs on the SQL Server instance, including backups, restores, accessing the Windows registry, and stopping SQL services during system database restores.
The Local rights are needed for system database restore because the sqlserver is brought down in single user mode. They are also needed for VSS restores of the system database because the sqlserver will be stopped and then restarted after the restore. And they are needed to see if VSS services are enabled. SQL rights are needed to connect to a SQL instance.
If the SQL server to which you are installing is also a Windows Domain Controller, you must use an account other than the domain administrator. Create a new user account which has both administrator and SQL 'sa' permissions and use that account.
If the SQL Server service is running using any account other than the Local System account, you will need the user name and password of that account.
For non-Microsoft cluster installations, the instance name must be manually entered in the New SQL Server dialog box.

Required Capability: See Capabilities and Required Actions

To add a SQL Server instance to the iDataAgent

From the CommCell Browser, open Client Computers, and then the client whose instances you need to add.
Right-click the SQL Server icon to open the shortcut menu; click All Tasks, and then click New SQL Server.
From the New SQL Server dialog box, click in the Server Name list any SQL instance that is not yet configured within the iDataAgent.
Within the Properties section, enter the required account and password.
Within the Storage Policies section, select the default storage policies to be used by the default subclient.
Click OK to complete the procedure.

This task is now complete.

Change Account for Accessing Instances

Required Capability: See Capabilities and Permitted Actions

To change a user account for accessing an instance:

From the CommCell Browser, expand the tree to view the instance for the affected agent. Then right-click the instance, click Properties, and click Accounts.
In the Instance Properties (Accounts) tab, enter (for SQL, MySQL, or Sybase) the user name information. For Sybase and MySQL, also enter SA-related information.
Click OK to save the settings.

Change Account for Executing Pre/Post Commands (Data Protection)

Required Capability: See Capabilities and Permitted Actions

To change a user account for executing pre/post commands for Data Protection jobs:

From the CommCell Browser, expand the tree to view the appropriate level icon for the affected agent.
- From the agent, instance/partition, or backup set/archive set level, right-click the appropriate icon, click All Tasks, and click New Subclient from the short-cut menu.
- From the subclient level, right-click the subclient icon and click Properties from the short-cut menu.
From the Subclient Properties dialog box, create and/or configure the subclient as appropriate. Then click the Pre/Post Process tab.
From the Pre/Post Process tab, click Change.
From the User Account dialog box, select one of the account options. If you select Impersonate User, type the appropriate user name and password.
Click OK to save the settings.

Change Account for Executing Pre/Post Commands (Data Recovery)

Required Capability: See Capabilities and Permitted Actions

To change a user account for executing pre/post commands for Data Recovery jobs:

From the CommCell Browser, expand the tree to view the appropriate level icon for the affected agent. Then right-click the icon and click All Tasks from the short-cut menu.
Click the appropriate Browse or Restore option. Then populate, select, and click as appropriate to access the Restore Options dialog box.
From the Restore Options dialog box, click Advanced.
From the Advanced Restore Options, click the Pre/Post tab.
From the Pre/Post tab, select one of the account options in the Pre/Post Impersonation area. If you select Impersonate User, type the appropriate user name and password.
Click OK to save the settings.

Set the VDI Time-out Value for Large SQL Database Restores

Before You Begin

The VDI Timeout setting will be applied to all SQL Server iDataAgents on this client.

Required Capability: See Capabilities and Permitted Actions

To set the VDI time-out value:

From the CommCell Browser, right-click the SQL Server instance that contains the data files you want to restore, and click Properties from the shortcut menu.
From the General tab, increase the VDI Timeout, and click OK.
After changing the VDI Timeout setting, begin any restore procedure as usual.

Enable VSS backups on a SQL Instance

Related Topics:

Volume Shadow Services (VSS)

Use this procedure to enable VSS backups on a Microsoft SQL iDataAgent instance. For more details, see VSS for SQL Server iDataAgents.

Required Capability: See Capabilities and Permitted Actions

To enable VSS on a subclient:

From the CommCell Browser, right-click the instance for which you want to enable VSS, then click Properties.
From the General tab of the Instance Properties dialog box, click the Use VSS checkbox.
Click OK to save your changes.

This task is now complete.