Networker module for SQL keeps taking full backups

[twallaroo]

Hi all,

We are trying to backup SQL database servers with the NetWorker module for SQL (NMSQL). This way we want to be able to take a full backup once a week and incremental backups the rest of the week. But we always get full backups.

At first we created two schedules:

• Sched_SQL_Full_Weekly : skip, skip, skip, skip, skip, skip, full
• Sched_SQL_Incr_Daily : skip, incr, incr, incr, incr, incr, skip

This didn't work and gave us full backups the entire time. We found that the NMSQL doesn't work well with 'incr' and that we should use level 1-7.
So we adapted the Sched_SQL_Incr_Daily to : skip, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, skip

After this, we still get full backups, but we get the following warning:

* sqlclient:MSSQL:BIP 43708:nsrsqlsv:Start time: Fri Jan 23 09:22:28 2009
* sqlclient:MSSQL:BIP 43621:nsrsqlsv:Computer Name: sqlclient User Name: NetworkerSQL
* sqlclient:MSSQL:BIP 37785:nsrsqlsv:Last backup of database 'BIP' was not created using NMSQL Module.
* sqlclient:MSSQL:BIP Promoting the backup level to full. NSR_BACKUP_LEVEL: full;
* sqlclient:MSSQL:BIP NSR_COMPRESSION: TRUE;
* sqlclient:MSSQL:BIP NSR_GROUP: Test-1;
* sqlclient:MSSQL:BIP NSR_SAVESET_NAME: "MSSQL:BIP";
* sqlclient:MSSQL:BIP NSR_SERVER: backup1;
* sqlclient:MSSQL:BIP 37994:nsrsqlsv:Backing up BIP...
* sqlclient:MSSQL:BIP 4690:nsrsqlsv:BACKUP database [BIP] TO virtual_device='Legato#8db3ffc1-0f3c-46a4-bde0-87b7ca7a78dc' WITH name=N'LegatoNWMSQL'
* sqlclient:MSSQL:BIP 53085:nsrsqlsv:Backing up of BIP succeeded.
sqlclient: MSSQL:BIP level=full, 32 GB 00:25:11 1 file(s)
​

If we do several test backups on one day (first a full, then a level 2, then a level3, ...) we do get incremental backups.

For this SQL database server, we also have a client instance for filesystem backups:

• VSS SYSTEM SERVICES:\
• VSS SYSTEM BOOT:\
• VSS SYSTEM FILESET:\
• VSS ASR DISK:\
• VSS USER DATA:\
• VSS OTHER:\
• C:\
• E:\
• F:\

So we guessed, the message was due to the backup of the SQL-DB with a VSS-writer. So we disabled the the SQL writer by adding "VSS:SqlServerWriter=off" in the VSS save operations. But still we always get full backups.

In the release notes, we found that NMSQL always takes full backups if the remote user doesn't have sufficient privileges, but this couldn't be the case, because we the several testbackups in one day, we do get incremental backups.

Does anyone have a solution, or had the same problems?


Kind regards

 

[rahul.raj1in]

Hello,

Can you please tell what is the attribute set on the "level" feild in the group.

Also the DB should be in transanction mode for incremental backup.

Thanks
Rahul Raj

 

[twallaroo]

Hello Rahul,

We have solved this problem on some DB's, but not on all.
We were able to solve some of the problems by skipping the MSDEWriter in the VSS save operations. (by adding VSS:MSDEWriter=off)

On other DB's the problem wasn't solved by this method. I'm currently still checking. Maybe the DBA's also take backups of this DB with something else (for example windows backup).
I also found this entry on powerlink:
http://solutions.emc.com/emcsolutionview.asp?id=esg61246

I will update this post if we find something else.