topic Re: SM SQL - filegroup backups? in ONTAP Discussions

SM SQL - filegroup backups?

tguntrip — Thu, 05 Jun 2025 06:59:33 GMT

Bear with me, I'm no SQL DBA.

My customer is getting a bit hot under the collar:

According to your document “Snap Manager 5.1 for Microsoft SQL Server Installation and Administration Guide”, page 5, it states “...SnapManager does not support filegroup backups or filegroup restores of Microsoft SQL Server databases...”

This is why we are asking if you plan to resolve this issue in future releases as we, [customer name deleted], cannot be the only organisation to use multiple filegroups.

Is there a way to build this functionality with a little scripting etc? The documentation also states that 'up to 75 filegroups are supported per database' - the nuances of understanding are passing me by. If there's an equally compelling case for not caring about this on NetApp storage I'd be equally keen to hear...

Thanks

Tony

Re: SM SQL - filegroup backups?

qzhang — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 15:10:14 GMT

SMSQL does support backup/restore of multiple filegroups. What we don't support is to backup and restore individual filegroup. You would need to have this functionality if you cannot effectively backup whole database when you have big database, and are using stream based dump method. SMSQL uses snapshot backup/restore, which the size of database does not matter. So there is no need to support filegroup backup/restore.

If your customer has any other use cases SMSQL cannot handle, we would like to know.

Thanks,

-Qing

Re: SM SQL - filegroup backups?

tguntrip — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 15:17:05 GMT

Thanks Qing.

I've fed this information back to the customer - they haven't responded yet, but if they do I'll update this thread.

Thanks again,

Tony

Re: SM SQL - filegroup backups?

tguntrip — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 15:49:46 GMT

Hi,

Here's more from the customer - screenshot attached.

Tony,

Thank you for your email. Here is the scenario...

I have a Windows 2008 SP2 64 bit Server with 3 SQL 2008 Enterprise 64 bit Edition (SP1) instances.

When I run the Snap Manager for SQL (v 5.1) configuration wizard to associate the database files with the LUNS for our Enterprise Vault database with multiple filegroups, it produces an error. Please see attached screenshot.

The database is setup with the PRIMARY filegroup .mdf file on LUN “F”, the .ldf file on LUN “G”, and 31 additional filegroups for this one database on LUN “H”.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Any ideas?

Thanks,

Tony

Re: SM SQL - filegroup backups?

qzhang — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 17:58:15 GMT

The message box tells the customer exactly what the problem is. The customer already has database(s) on F and G, since this is a share LUN(s) configuration (multiple databases on two LUNs), he can only migrate the files of this database to F AND G, he cannot migrate files to any other additional LUN (that is H in this case). All related information about supported SMSQL database layout is documented in SMSQL IAG.

If the customer wants to use three LUNs for this databases, he can create new LUNs for this databases, as long as those LUNs don't have any other databases files resided on them.

BTW, this has nothing to do with filegroup backup.

Thanks,

-Qing

Re: SM SQL - filegroup backups?

tguntrip — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 12:51:50 GMT

Qing,

Thanks once again!

I've fed this back, and it's gone a but quiet...

Thanks

Tony