The Locations section of the Backup Wizard allows you to specify the backup location you want to use to store the backup set.

For a TSM backup, you can change the TSM connections settings to override the values set in the client options file if you need to write the backup files to a TSM Server other than the TSM Server already specified in the dsm.opt file.

Where can you store your backup set?

SQL Safe supports the following location types:

  • Single File.
  • Striped Files.
  • Tape (Tivoli Storage Manager).
  • Data Domain.
  • Amazon S3 Cloud.
  • Microsoft Azure Cloud.
  • Tape (Tivoli Storage Manager) Striped Files.

What actions do you have for each location type?

Location TypeActions
Single File
  • Choose if you want to Overwrite or Append the existing archive file, the name of the Primary Archive file, and the Mirror Archives Filenames.
Striped Files
  • Choose if you want to Overwrite or Append the existing archive files.
  • Specify as many filenames as the number of striped files you want.
Tape (Tivoli Storage Manager)
  • Choose if you want to Overwrite or Append the existing archive file.
  • Enter the path for the Primary Archive file (High Level, Low Level, and Management Class).
  • Specify the TSM Client Settings (Client Options File and Connection Settings). For these settings, you have to specify the name of the node you want to use, the password required to access the node, and the TCP/IP Server address and port.
Data Domain
  • Choose if you want to Overwrite or Append the existing archive file, the name of the Primary Archive file, and the Mirror Archives Filenames.
Amazon S3 Cloud
  • Choose if you want to Overwrite or Append the existing archive file.
  • Specify your Amazon S3 cloud storage options to be used for your backup. These options include File Name, Access Key, Secret Key, Region, Bucket Name, SubFolder(s) (Optional), Storage Class, and File Size. For more information, go to Amazon Settings.
Microsoft Azure Cloud
  • Choose if you want to Overwrite or Append the existing archive file.
  • Specify the information needed to access your Microsoft Azure clouds such as File Name, Container Name, Azure Storage Account Name, Azure Access Key, SubFolder(s) (Optional), and Sector Type. For more information, go to Azure Settings.
Tape (Tivoli Storage Manager) Striped Files
  • Choose if you want to Overwrite or Append the existing archive file.
  • Determine the path to the High Level primary archive, its Management Class, and the information related to the TSM Client Settings (Client Options File, Node Name, Server Address, and Server Port).
  • Specify the number of striped archives and the details for each Low level archive.

Take into account that if the number of stripes is greater than the available sessions on TSM server, the backup fails with a message "sessions are not available on TSM". There is no available way for the TSM client to find out available sessions on the TSM server.

What are striped files?

If you want to take advantage of distributing I/O overhead for a large database, you can select striped files and choose backup locations on different local disks.

How do you handle errors encountered while writing to the network during a backup?

Select Enable Network Resiliency and access the Network Resiliency Settings window where you can specify how often you want to retry when errors occur and after how much time the operation will fail. You can also configure how much time is allowed for the total retry time of the backup.

This option is not available when backing up to tape using Tivoli Storage Manager.

What do you do if you do have an existing archive?

If the Archive Exist, you can select to Append it to an existing archived backup set or choose to Overwrite it.

What happens if you do not have an existing archive file?

If you do not have an existing archive file, SQL Safe Backup creates a new archive file to include the backup set. 

Keep in mind, the filename extension for all backups performed under the SQL Safe format are .safe and for all backups performed under the SQL server format are .bak.

How do you mirror your backups?

Select Mirror Archives, then specify where you want the mirror copies to be stored.  

For each mirror, SQL Safe creates a copy of the backup archive set. You can specify up to two mirror archives for each backup operation. Keep in mind that creating mirrors can impact the performance of your backup operation.

If you want to stop the backup operation when the mirror location is unavailable, select Abort backup if a mirror location reports a failure. 

This option is only available when backing up to Single File and Data Domain. 

Once you select the location of your backup files, click NEXT to configure options for your backup. 



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