AlwaysOn Preferences

Use this property page to configure the backup preference settings for scheduled backups of availability groups and availability replicas in an SQL Server environment.

The settings are intended for scheduling backups of availability groups and availability replicas, and not for interactive backups with Microsoft Management Console (MMC).

The following settings are available in this property page:

Availability group
Select an AlwaysOn Availability Group for which you want to set schedule backup preferences.
Primary replica
Displays the primary replica for the selected availability group.
Preferred replica
Backup commands are scheduled on all nodes in an availability group. When the schedules run, the backup occurs only on the preferred replica. Other replicas receive, at run time, a warning message. The backup is skipped. You can make the following selections:
  • Select Prefer Secondary replica if you want scheduled backups to occur on a secondary replica, if it is available. Otherwise, use the primary replica for the scheduled backup.
  • Select Secondary only if you want scheduled backups to occur only on a secondary replica.
  • Select Primary if you want scheduled backups to occur only on the primary replica.
  • Select Any replica if you want scheduled backups to occur on any availability replica.
Availability replicas
For each availability replica in this list box, specify whether it is a candidate for running scheduled backups by specifying the backup priority for that replica. A value of 1 has the lowest priority, and a value of 100 has the highest priority. A value of 0 indicates that the replica is excluded from schedule backup operations.
Availability databases
Displays the availability databases that are in an availability replica. The synchronization state is also displayed.