SQL 2012 Always On and Avamar

Question

Is anyone using Avamar to backup a SQL 2012 Always On configuration? We have a 4 node SQL cluster running SQL 2012 Always On.  The cluster is configured as follows: Each application group is configured on 2 nodes and the storage is shared to only those 2 nodes, the other 2 nodes cannot see that application groups storage. I have configured the application groups for backups using the Avamar Cluster Configuration Tool.  The issue I am running into is that Avamar is basically unable to see any of the clustered drives for backup or restore, I can only see the local C and D drive to backup, none of the clustered drives. I have tried pointing the Var folder to a seperate third party share outside of the nodes, this did not make a difference. We have also tried using the SQL Plug in, however that only allows us to browse to the actual SQL databases, which we do not want to back up, we exclude SQL databases from our backups and only backup the backup, log, and transaction files.  With the SQL plug in we still cannot browse to all cluster shared drives. Has anyone run into this issue or something similar?  Any suggestions or help is greatly appreciated.

Sandeep_Sinha · Answer

Which Avamar plugin version are you running ?

techwom · Answer

We do not backup active SQL databases in our environment so we are looking to only use the windows plugin.

techwom · Answer

We have tried both avamar version 6.0.1.66 and 6.1.

ringmaster2010 · Answer

Don't bother using the SQL plug in for Avamar on a MSCS Cluster. If it hasn' t corrupted a database or caused a failover failure yet, your extremely lucky. twice bitten!!!

ae86levin · Answer

x2 to what Ringmaster said.  We don't use the Avamar plugin on 2012 always on either.

fdxpilot · Answer

Do you guys have any details regarding the issues you've seen when using the SQL plugin in a MSCS environment?&#xa0; It would be worth bringing these issues to the attention of support/engineering so they can get fixed.&#xa0; Marketing loves to brag about Avamar's tight integration with Microsoft products so if this isn't working, it should be fixed (since marketers would never stretch the truth! ).&#xa0; I believe one of the manager's of Microsoft plug-in development even posts here from time to time.

ringmaster2010 · Answer

Okay pretty simple here. the plugin for a MSCS cluster plants itself in the cluster resources. it failed within an hour of installation, and the service won't restart, so the cluster goes down after a couple failovers. ( have it set to not continue to failover if it fails 3 times) there are no events logged anywhere so its just not something i can let sit in there and fail.

now on the other 2008 R2 MSCS cluster i didn't even know the backup people had installed it, took a little longer, a week, then it corrupted master and msdb as well as a biztalk database. biztalk database are continuously in use, so it just took some time for it to totally ruin my cluster. not willing to spend any time diagnosing a utility that has this kind of failure rate.

now i could have placed it in its own MSCS resource group and configured it to just stay failed and not restart. but after the corruption, i really don't have the extra time to correct corrupt system databases and applications databases every week. Just not the kind of software i want to experiment with.

dietrich_c · Answer

Hello,

Is this still a problem with the new avamar version 7.0... ? I'm looking to configure a backup for our 2 node SQL 2012 Always on cluster, but cannot affort to use a software that will corrupt my databases.

What best practise do you recommend as workaround?

ionthegeek · Answer

I have not heard of other customers experiencing the issue Ringmaster2000 describes above.

easyrimka · Answer

after a problem with backing up a sharepoint farm with a clustered SQL, avamar tech find that avamar 7 is not compatible with SQL always on. We have to upgrade to 7.1

dietrich_c · Answer

Was this explained in the fixes of avamar 7.0 to 7.1 ?

ionthegeek · Answer

The SQL plug-in supports SQL Always On in Avamar 7.0. The SharePoint plug-in does not support SQL Always On until Avamar 7.1.

ionthegeek · Answer

Unfortunately, I don't have any best practices to share -- SQL is not my area of expertise.

dietrich_c · Answer

Ok, Thanks Ian for verification. I just want to backup a 2 node always on setup with the avamar SQL plugin on avamar 7.0.2-43. btw: any best practises beside the manual?

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