Requirements and Recommendations

The client can be installed on both the server where the SQL Database is present or on the backup server.

Installation on the Microsoft SQL Server server

The following requirements must be fulfilled:

• The Backup Agent must be installed on the server where SQL Server is installed
• On this server there must be a temporary directory with a dimension equal to at least 120% of the total dimension of the database to backup. It’s recommended the directory to reside on a local disk.
• The Windows service regarding SQL Server must be started with reading and writing permissions on the temporary directory.
• Only complete or differential backups are allowed for databases with simple recovery model.
• If the transaction log are to be backed up, it’s necessary to change the recovery model from simple to complete.

Installation on dedicated backup server

The following requirements must be fulfilled:

• The Backup Agent application must be installed on the backup server.
• On the server there must be a temporary directory with a dimension equal to at least 120% of the total dimension of the database to back up.
• The temporary directory must be a “network resource” because the client is not installed on the server hosting the SQL Server instance.
• The Windows service regarding SQL Server must be started with reading and writing permissions on the temporary directory.
• Only complete or differential backups are allowed for databases with simple recovery model. If the transaction log are to be backed up, it’s necessary to change the recovery model from simple to complete.

Considerations about the backup and restore of a system database

SQL Server includes a set of system databases fundamental for the proper functioning of the SQL Server instance.

Some of those must be saved after each relevant modification. Among those:

• master
• model
• msdb

For instances with the replica option set, there’s also to consider this database

• distribution