Online Backup Guide

Acronis Recovery for MS SQL Server

Acronis Recovery for MS SQL Server, as the name suggests is a backup and recovery software for creating backup of databases and MS SQL server instances along with all the tables, logs and structural components.  It has an attractive and intuitive Wizard driven interface that is directed towards reducing backup strategy implementation time and easing the process of configuration.

Features:

What are the features of this tool? The key benefits of Acronis Recovery are: smaller more manageable archives; effective resource management; centralized management console; ease of administration; guided disaster recovery and encryption for security.

Integration with SQL Server

Techie readers will appreciate that Acronis recovery is integrated with the SQL Server through the Standard Microsoft APIs.  It sports a Virtual Device Interface for SQL Server backups and ODBC for application connectivity. Since this product is not cluster aware it is a definite No for organizations that have SQL cluster servers in place.

Graphical user interface

Admin users will have nothing to complain with this software. The core of the graphical user interface is the Server Assistant. It is simple, attractive, user friendly. The management console can be installed on any machine on the network and on as many workstations as considered necessary without the need to acquire additional license for every new installation on the network.

Acronis MS SQL Management Console

Backup

This product will warm the hearts of Disaster Recovery doyens. It supports point in time backup and recovery and can be comfortably used for remote installs to SQL Servers that need protection from the GUI Management console interface. Those concerned with security of access can sleep easy. Authentication and authorization protocols secure the system against unauthorized entry and modification.

Recovery and Editing

Acronis Recovery saves users the hard labor of creating step by step guides for recovery in the event of disaster. The application intuitively creates and emails disaster recovery plans with step by step instructions on how to recover databases.  The guided process makes it possible for the non-DBA user, recover databases with confidence.  For those who do not want to let go the past tried and tested protocols, the system allows the import of preexisting Microsoft SQL Server maintenance plans.  It supports the roll out snapshot creation; protects database backups with strong industry standard encryption; compresses backups to ten times smaller than its original size; throttles bandwidth to keep the backup process transparent to network users; issues notifications via email and SNMP; stages automatic recovery; creates hot backups; restores backup to another Microsoft SQL server version or schedule complete backup strategy and so on.  This product ships with a Software Development Kit that allows users tailor backups and restores in line with their processes.

Comprehensive recovery process

Acronis Recovery for MS SQL recognizes the fact that comprehensive recovery is more than just data backup.  The recovery process ensures that the tables, logs and other components that were backed up are restored successfully and completely.  The software also makes it possible to restore corrupt or user created errors in the database by simply connecting to the SQL server from the management console, launching the Restore data Wizard and following the on screen instructions thereafter.

Simplification of recovery process

Acronis delivers automated system restores to the point of failure. It is a simple one step process that eliminates the need to walk through multiple menus.  The recovery process is simplified and Wizards guide users through the process of recovery. It lets you schedule restores in environments where there is a need to refresh the development environment with new versions of production data.  However, this feature has a glitch in that the backup file names are not consistent unless they are names outside Acronis recovery.

Acronis Recovery Toolbox

The Flip side of the bargain

While it is clear that Acronis has spend considerable time and effort in researching customer needs and building functionalities that will create a positive user experience, it has its limitations too.  It has no tool to convert its backups to standard SQL server backups implying that Acronis Recovery environment needs to exist if a database has to be recovered.  The application also tends to be sluggish in both virtual and physical environments or in stand alone environments.  The management of backups on multiple SQL Server instances can also be challenging as the Management Console does not provide a tree-view for drilling down into multiple instances.  It may do very well for small and medium size businesses that do not have too many SQL server instances requiring backup and restore but will not be attractive to large enterprises which are looking for advanced features that are found in competitive products.