Protection of Microsoft SQL Server data in VMware environments

For Microsoft SQL Server workloads that are running in a VMware ESXi virtual guest machine, you can take application-consistent backups of virtual machines that are hosting Microsoft SQL Server data. By using Tivoli® Storage Manager software, you can also recover backups from the virtual machine.

Before you back up data, identify your recovery point objective (RPO). The RPO helps you decide how often to back up data and affects the cost that is associated with data backups.

For example, you can schedule frequent virtual machine backups for necessary recovery points. The recovery point of a virtual machine backup is the time of the backup. While change-block tracking and data deduplication offer savings, virtual machine backups can be expensive if you create and delete many virtual machine snapshots.

Most traditional in-guest data protection methods provide appropriate RPOs, but these in-guest methods lose the efficiencies that are introduced by backing up data at the virtual machine level.

You can use IBM® Tivoli Storage Manager for Virtual Environments: Data Protection for VMware and Tivoli Storage FlashCopy® Manager with Data Protection for Microsoft SQL Server to back up data at a virtual machine level in a way that preserves backup efficiencies.