SQL server mount and migrate

The SQL server mount and migrate feature is available for recovery of the following:

SQL databases—stand-alone and failover cluster
Consistency group of SQL databases
SQL instances
SQL AGs

SQL server mount and migrate is a three step process that includes the following:

Mount or restore: Perform either an application aware mount or a mount and migrate restore. For more information, see Mount or restore
Migrate: Configure the migration schedule for an image from the Active Mounts page. Image migration follows the schedule defined and migrations jobs are run repeatedly at the frequency specified. For more information, see Configure migration schedule
Finalize: Initiate the last and final stage of the image migration process. For more information, see Finalize

Note: When working with SQL availability group, the finalize step cannot be performed on a database in a group that is on the primary node. To finalize migration on the primary node, a failover to another node must be performed first, which changes the node to be a secondary.

Mount or restore

You can perform either an application aware mount or a mount and migrate restore on the desired image.

For instructions on how to perform an application aware mount of SQL databases,see Mount a SQL server databases as virtual applications. For instructions on performing a mount and migrate restore, see Mount and migrate restore.

Multiple restores can be performed concurrently for a parent application like SQL instance, SQL availability group, or SQL consistency group, but they have to be on different databases. When more than one mount and migrate jobs are in progress, you will see an yellow banner with the following message:

Mount and migrate restore

To perform a mount and migrate restore, follow these steps:

Click App Manager and select Applications from the drop-down menu.

The Applications page opens.
Select the SQL application with the image that you want to restore using mount and migrate capability. Then select Access from the drop-down list at the bottom of the Applications page.

The Access page opens listing captured images appear in the timeline ramp view. For more information on the view, see Access the timeline ramp view of an image

Note: Background differentiates snapshot images containing a SQL database with archive log files, and also illustrates the restore range time period for the logs.
Select the image, then select Restore from the list of operations.

The Restore page opens.
Select the Mount and Migrate option. Depending on your database, you may see more or less options.
If the selected database does not currently have logs, the Restore page does not show roll forward options.
If the source application is protected by a snapshot policy that has enabled database log backups, and logs are available with the image, you can use them to roll forward to a specific point in time by changing these options in the Roll Forward Time section:
- The date field contains all possible dates that the database can be rolled forward to—through the application of database transaction logs. Select which date you wish the database to be rolled forward to.
- The time field contains a slider showing all possible times on the selected date that the database can be rolled forward to. If you select the latest possible date and then move the slider to the right most position, the restore job applies to all available logs. If you select the earliest possible date and move the slider to the left most position, the restore job applies no logs.
- You can specify to roll forward using either User Time or Host Time. User Time is relative to the local time of the current user. Host Time is relative to the system that hosts the data to be restored.
When using an OnVault image as the source, the log range is visible when logs are available in either the OnVault pool for the source image or in the snapshot pool on the backup/recovery appliance for the selected target host. When dealing with imported OnVault images, this might result in different ranges of available logs based on the target host, or it might result in no roll forward time option appearing at all.
In Label, optionally enter a name. The Label is pre-populated with the text Restore - M&M - 04 June, 2019 06:52:29pm, using date and current time, so if the you do not update the property, the default value is used.

You are not be able to change the default selection for Restore with Recovery, as the property is disabled.
For SQL Server Instance Name, select the target SQL Server Instance. The new database with be managed by the instance you specify. Similarly, for Consistency Groups, enter the name of the target Consistency Group in the Enter Consistency Group Name field.
In SQL Server Database Name, enter the new SQL server database to be provisioned.
For SQL Instances and Consistency Groups, select the databases to be included in the restore job. The Restore with Recovery option is enabled by default and you cannot disable it.
In Username, enter the name of the username for database provisioning. It is needed only when the account running the Backup and DR agent does not have the privileges to apply transaction logs or to dispatch a database.
In Password, enter the password for the user you specified in step 10.
Click Submit. A warning dialog opens. Read it and then enter DATA LOSS to confirm.

The selected databases are taken offline. A mount is performed to provide fast access to the databases with the selected point in time. After the mount completes, the migrate option becomes available as an action on the resulting active image.

Note: If the target is a VM, and the mount mode is not pRDM, the user will see the warning text below the Data Loss message: Warning: pRDM is not selected. This means that backups taken while the databases are running from the mount is captured out-of-band and can consume a full copy's worth of space in the snapshot pool, plus changes. When the migrate begins, backups can stop until the migration is finalized.

Configure migration schedule

You can configure the migration schedule from the Active mounts page. Any application aware mounted image can be migrated at a later time. Images that were restored using the mount and migrate option can also be migrated. Mounted images show the image state of Mounted and images that were restored using the mount and migrate capability have the image state of Restore (Mounted).

For instructions on how to configure migration schedule, see Configure migration schedule for mount and migrate. Image migration follows the schedule defined and migrations jobs are run repeatedly at the frequency specified.

Once migration starts, the image state changes to Migrating—in case the image is an application aware mount—or Restore (Migrating—if the image was created using the Restore Mount and Migration option. The image is in Migrating state until you initiated finalize migration in step three, when the last migration that is performed.

Finalize

Finalize migration initiates the last and final stage of the image migration process. Once you begin finalize, you cannot cancel out of the migration process.

Before you initiate finalize, you can complete the following:

change the migration frequency specified for the image
perform an on-demand migration job
cancel image migration
cancel image restore

To begin finalize, follow these steps:

Go to the Active Mounts page and filter by Image State of Migrating or Restore (Migrating).
Select the desired image and then select Finalize Restore from the drop-down menu at the bottom of the page.

You can see the following confirmation message.
Read carefully and then click Proceed. The databases are taken offline during final migration and then brought back up again on the target production database.
Go to Monitor & Jobs, and filter by Finalize job type. Locate the job and view the job details.

You can also view images with the Finalize image state in the Active Mounts page.

Change migration frequency

To change the migration schedule, follow these steps:

Select an active image with Image State of Mounted or Restore Mounted.
Select Migrate from the drop-down menu at the bottom of the page.

The Update Migrate Frequency page opens.
For Frequency, use the slider to define the frequency with which to schedule migrate jobs from one to 24 hours.
For Copy Thread Count, specify the number of parallel copy threads to use, per disk volume, during the migration. The default value is four.
For mounted images, update the File Locations section using instructions in Configure migration schedule for mount and migrate.
Click Submit. You see a success message.
Click Okay to close the message and return to the Active Mounts page.

Run an on-demand migration job

Once you have configured the migration schedule, image migration follows the schedule you specified and migration jobs run at the frequency you specified. However, you can run the migration on demand if needed.

To run an on-demand image migration, complete the following:

Select an active image with an Image State of Migrating.
Select Run Migration Job Now from the drop-down menu.

Cancel a migration job

To cancel an image migration, follow these steps:

Select an active image with an Image State of Migrating.
Select Cancel Migration from the drop-down menu.
At the warning message, click Proceed to cancel. This stops the migration and delete all data that was copied over during previous migrations.

Cancel image restore

To cancel an image restore, follow these steps:

Go to the Active Mounts page and filter by the Image State of Restore (Migrating).
Select the desired image and then select Cancel Restore from the drop-down menu at the bottom of the page.
Click Proceed to cancel. This cancels all running and scheduled migration jobs for the image, deletes all data copied by prior migrations, takes the databases offline, and finally performs an unmount and delete of the mounted databases.

The Backup and DR SQL server DBA guide

This page is one in a series of pages specific to protecting and recovering Microsoft SQL server databases with Backup and DR. You can find additional information on the following pages: