• State Suggested Answer
  • Locked Locked
  • Replies 4 replies
  • Answers 1 answer
  • Subscribers 27 subscribers
  • Views 5855 views
  • Users 0 members are here
Options
Related
This discussion has been locked.
You can no longer post new replies to this discussion. If you have a question you can start a new discussion

Live DB Recovery

Corrigun
over 7 years ago

Hi All,

We have a 2008r2 server on which a PSQL DB and the application that uses it coexists on the same non O/S partition. It is in use 24/7/365.

Is it reasonable to believe that a "live recovery" of this partition would work as advertised in the event that it was compromised? That is to say recover it on the fly while the users continued unaware?

I would agree that testing would be beneficial but short of building a lab and purchasing additional licenses it's just not practical.

Thanks In Advance

  • 0 over 7 years ago
    I would guess the answer would be, kinda, maybe. A live recovery restore on a SQL DB probably wont work simply because the SQL service wont start (as the DB's are not there) I don't know if live recovery would help at all. I was thinking that it would, since it's whole purpose is to push requested files to the front of the restore queue, but I don't know that SQL would "request" its necessary files.

    If trying to start SQL would request these files, then live recovery would probably speed up your restore (not make it instant) If SQL does not request the files, so they DON'T get pushed to the front of the restore queue, then I don't think it wold help at all.

    If this is a critical server/ application, bring it to management and get whatever needs to be done in place to test. I would assume there is some license policy in place to allow short term testing. As far as hardware, a good option would be to export a snapshot to a vm and test on that.

    I would be interested to know your results/ finding. I have never run into this (we export critical servers vs using live recovery) but someone from Quest may have more info
  • 0 over 7 years ago
    Hi Scashman,

    There appears to be no provision for a testing license or even a grace period but I have contacted the vendor. I do export a VM of this machine and the DB will only run if I validate the license online (thus disabling our live server).

    I won't pretend to understand the intricacies of SQL vs PSQL but it appears that PSQL is "simpler" for lack of a better term. For example the RR backup does not treat it like our SQL machine. It just makes a backup with no provisions for truncating or attaching or any mention of it at all. Nor does our other backup titles for that matter.

    It would be neat to try and I strongly suspect it would but I was hoping someone would know from experience. I would think if it can handle a disaster like MS Exchange on the fly it could do this as well but it's a guess.
  • 0 over 7 years ago
    Hi Corrigun:
    RapidRecovery does not really understand PSQL. As such, if a PSQL VSS writer is available, it will probably back it up properly. However, it has no way of handling the PSQL metadata.
    If no VSS writer is available, the backup will be crash consistent vs Application Consistent. If your databases are not hammered with I/O requests this may not be a big issue (although by no means it is right). In previous experience as a Sys Admin, out of 3 moderately loaded MsSQL server backups I was getting at least on good restore (in most cases all of them were OK).
    Going back to Live Recovery, it would work with MSSQL (the MSSQL Server knows where to find the databases which are available during the restore) -- I have first hand experience -- but I do not see how it would work with PSQL although, miracles do happen... I suspect that if the PSQL database engine service is able to start and if there is a VSS writer specific to PSQL there is a good chance -- I would say 30% or so that somehow the Live recovery would work.
    I apologize in advance by moving on hypothetical grounds and speculating from there.
  • 0 over 7 years ago
    Hi Tudor,

    Just for anyone who happens to read this in the future according to PSQL it does fully utilize VSS as of version 11 SP2 and any backup software that uses it is supported for full, point in time backups.

    If I ever get a chance to try this in a genuine disaster I will update this. I figure if it's hosed anyway it would be worth trying to see what happens.

    Thanks All