The Location tab of the Log Shipping Policy Wizard allows you to specify the location for the backups you are creating with this log shipping policy. Backups must be stored to a network path that all servers in the policy can write to.
What options can you set on this tab?
Access Filesystem As
This is the account SQL Safe uses to access the specified primary and mirror locations. Depending whether you selected the SQL Server Agent or the SQL Safe Backup Agent for your log policy, you can choose between SQL Server Agent service account/SQL Safe Backup Agent service account respectively or a Windows account. Click Account and select your preferred option.
Enter a user account that has access rights to the target locations. The user account used must have read and write permissions to the specified resource.
You can also choose how to handle errors encountered during a backup by selecting Enable network resiliency. By default, SQL Safe will retry the backup operation every 10 seconds and then fail after 5 minutes (300 seconds) of continuous errors. Over the course of the operation, SQL Safe allows a total of 60 minutes in which to retry the backup before stopping the operation. This option is not available when backing up to tape using Tivoli Storage Manager.
Primary Location
This is the first location where the backup files will be stored. By default, SQL Safe ships the backup files from this location to your secondary server. When you configure the secondary database settings, you can specify an alternate location.
Enter the network path of the location where you want the log backup archive to be kept. The destination folder must be configured as a network share. You can also specify how long you want to keep old backup files. By default, SQL Safe will delete files older than three (3) days.
SQL Safe detects if the Computer Browser service is not running on your computer. This service enables Windows to list other computers on the network. If this service is not running, Windows may not be able to list the computers on your network. SQL Safe allows you to start this service, but keep in mind that it may take several minutes for computers to become visible.
Mirror Archives
These are the locations where copies or "mirrors" of the backup files will be saved. For each mirror location, SQL Safe creates and stores a copy of the backup files. You can specify up to 2 mirrors for each log shipping operation. Keep in mind that creating mirrors can impact the performance of your log shipping operation.
You can also specify:
- How long you want to keep old backup files. By default, SQL Safe delete files older than three (3) days.
- Whether SQL Safe should cancel the backup when one of the specified mirror locations reports a failure like a connection timeout for example.
Once you determine the location, click NEXT to select secondary databases.