CDP_AppBackup

Application Backup

•

“Backing up Microsoft Exchange” section

•

“Backing up System State and Active Directory” section

•

“Backing up Microsoft SQL Server” section

Backing up Microsoft Exchange

Backing up Microsoft Exchange using SonicWALL CDP allows users to store and retrieve Microsoft Exchange revisions from an agent machine. Microsoft Exchange backup cannot be configured using the Web Management Interface.

Note

Microsoft Exchange can only be backed up using the Agent User Interface.

See the following sections:

•

“Backing Up a Microsoft Exchange User Mailbox” section

•

“Backing Up a Microsoft Exchange Storage Group” section

Backing Up a Microsoft Exchange User Mailbox

You can backup individual user mailboxes by using the Microsoft Exchange User Mailbox Backup and Restore server application in the SonicWALL CDP Agent User Interface. The user mailbox is backed up onto your SonicWALL CDP appliance.

For Microsoft Exchange 2010 on Windows Server 2008, SonicWALL CDP supports backup and restore on a multi-application, single server deployment, in which the same server has several applications installed, such as Exchange, SQL, and Active Directory.

In the Agent User Interface, you can create a Microsoft Exchange - User Mailbox application object for for one or more user mailboxes, input the login credentials for the Exchange server, configure a backup schedule, create a backup task, optionally select offsite backup, and restore individual user mailboxes to the Exchange server. For information about restoring a user mailbox, see the “Recovering a Microsoft Exchange User Mailbox” section .

The User Mailbox Backup and Restore feature includes the following capabilities:

•

Convenient interface for adding user mailboxes to or deleting them from the backup process

•

Ability to set the backup schedule for a group of mailboxes or for individual user mailboxes

•

Secure login using credentials to the Microsoft Exchange server

•

Optional automatic backup of user mailboxes to an offsite location

•

Retention of multiple backups for each user mailbox

User Mailbox Backup and Restore backs up and restores messages in the user’s Outlook Mailbox, including the Inbox, Drafts, Deleted Items, and Sent Items, as well as messages within all other folders with custom names.

It does not back up the Outlook Calendar, Notes, Contacts, Tasks, Meeting Requests, and Public Folders. It also does not back up locally archived folders.

See the following sections:

•

“How Does User Mailbox Backup and Restore Work?” section

•

“Installation Prerequisites” section

•

“Adding User Mailboxes to an Application Object” section

•

“Scheduling Backups for User Mailboxes” section

•

“Configuring a Backup Task for User Mailbox Backups” section

•

“Configuring and Testing Access to the Exchange Server” section

•

“Removing User Mailboxes from the Backup Task” section

•

“Verifying User Mailbox Backup Activity” section

How Does User Mailbox Backup and Restore Work?

The SonicWALL CDP Microsoft Exchange User Mailbox Backup and Restore feature is implemented as a server application that is automatically discovered by the SonicWALL CDP Agent User Interface. To get started using the feature, select the Policies tab and then select Applications in the left pane of the Agent User Interface. To backup user mailboxes, you must configure an application object, a schedule, and a backup task that includes both the application object and the schedule.

The User Mailbox application allows you to add or delete individual user mailboxes for backup, set backup schedules, restore specific backups of individual mailboxes, enter credentials for accessing the Exchange server, and configure offsite backup. You can view log entries in the SonicWALL CDP Agent User Interface on the Status tab to verify that backups are successful.

Installation Prerequisites

This section lists the necessary prerequisites for successful operation of the SonicWALL CDP Agent User Interface with the Microsoft Exchange User Mailbox Backup and Restore feature. For information about supported servers and versions of Exchange, see the “Supported Platforms and Deployment Requirements” section .

Note

The SonicWALL CDP appliance must be licensed for server applications. On models that do not support server application licenses, such as SonicWALL CDP 110 and 210, you can still use the User Mailbox Backup and Restore feature.

ExOLEDB / ADO / CDO Requirements for Exchange 2007/2003/2000

SonicWALL CDP uses ExOLEDB to access Microsoft Exchange 2007, 2003, and 2000. The Exchange OLE DB Provider should be installed along with Microsoft Exchange, and must be accessible by the SonicWALL CDP Web Management Interface and Agent User Interface.

The ADO (ActiveX Data Objects) and CDO (Collaboration Data Objects) APIs are also required by this feature. These are application programming interfaces provided by Microsoft that allow applications to access data stores in a uniform manner. These APIs are included with the Microsoft Exchange installation.

Note

This requirement does not apply to Exchange 2010.

ESE Backup Client DLL/ CDOEXM Requirements for Legacy Exchange

SonicWALL CDP uses the Exchange Backup and Restore API to access Microsoft Exchange. The Microsoft ESE Backup Client DLL (EsEbCli2.dll) should be installed along with Microsoft Exchange, and must be accessible by SonicWALL CDP Web Management Interface and Agent User Interface. The Collaboration Data Objects for Exchange Management (CDOEXM) APIs are also used to automate the restore procedure, but not required by this feature.

Note

This requirement only applies for Exchange backups created on SonicWALL CDP 5.1 or earlier.

Adding User Mailboxes to an Application Object

To backup user mailboxes, you must configure an application object, a schedule, and a backup task that includes both the application object and the schedule. This section describes how to create the application object.

You can test the connection to the Exchange Server by clicking the Authentication button while adding or editing an application object. It is not necessary to enter any authentication credentials to test the connection.

To create an application object with individual user mailboxes for backup, perform the following steps:

Step 1

In the SonicWALL CDP Agent User Interface, click the Policies tab.

Step 2

In the left pane, click Applications .

Step 3

In the right pane, click the Plus button at the lower right corner. The Add Application window opens.

Step 4

Type a descriptive name for the application object into the Name field.

Step 5

Select Microsoft Exchange - User Mailbox in the Application drop-down list. The list of available applications is automatically populated through a discovery process. For proper discovery, the Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy service must not be disabled. See “Backup and Recovery Troubleshooting” for more information.

Step 6

Under Application items , select the checkboxes for one or more user mailboxes to back up.

Step 7

If authentication credentials are required to access the Exchange server, or to test the connections to the Exchange server, click the Authentication button. The Authentication dialog box opens.

Step 8

In the Authentication dialog box, type the domain\username into the Username field and type the password into the Password field.

Step 9

To test the connection between the User Mailbox application and the Exchange server, either with or without credentials, click the Test Connection button.

Step 10

When finished entering the authentication credentials, click Save . Click Cancel to close the dialog box without saving anything.

Step 11

In the Add Application window, click OK to add the application object.

The new application object appears in the Policies screen of the Agent User Interface.

Note

Before the backup will occur, you must also configure a schedule for this application object, and a backup task that includes both the application object and the schedule.

Scheduling Backups for User Mailboxes

To backup user mailboxes, you must configure an application object, a schedule, and a backup task that includes both the application object and the schedule. This section describes how to create the schedule object.

Note

You can use the same schedule object in more than one backup task.

To configure a schedule for user mailbox backups, perform the following steps:

Step 1

In the SonicWALL CDP Agent User Interface, click the Policies tab.

Step 2

In the left pane, select Schedules .

Step 3

In the right pane, click the Plus button at the lower right corner. The Add Schedule window opens.

Step 4

Type a descriptive name for the schedule into the Name field.

Step 5

Select any of the following tabs to configure a schedule that meets your requirements:

•

Day Interval – The backup occurs every so many days calculated from a particular date.

–

Select the number of days for the interval between backups.

–

Select a start date. By default, the interval is calculated from the current date.

–

Select a time to run the backup on those days.

•

Days of the Week – The backup runs on certain days of the week.

–

Select the days of the week, Sunday through Saturday, on which to run the backup.

–

Select the time at which to start the backup.

•

Days of the Month – The backup occurs on certain days of the month.

–

Select the days of the month on which to run the backup. Select Last for the last day of the month.

–

Select the time at which to start the backup.

•

Specific Dates – The backup occurs on the selected dates.

–

Click the small calendar and then select the date(s).

–

Select the time at which to start the backup.

Step 6

Click OK .

Configuring a Backup Task for User Mailbox Backups

A backup task includes both an application object and a schedule for the backup. Without a backup task, no backups will occur.

For offsite backup, you can choose the Send All Files Offsite option when adding or editing a backup task.

Note

Before creating a backup task, create the application object and schedule to be included in the task.

To create a backup task for a user mailbox backup, perform the following steps:

Step 1

In the SonicWALL CDP Agent User Interface, click the Policies tab.

Step 2

In the left pane, select Backup Tasks .

Step 3

In the right pane, click the Plus button at the lower right corner. The Add Backup Task window opens.

Step 4

Type a descriptive name for the backup task into the Name field.

Step 5

Select Application from the Select File Type drop-down list.

Step 6

Select the desired application object from the Application Data drop-down list.

Step 7

Type the desired number of backup revisions to keep into the Number of Versions field. The default is 2.

Step 8

The Trimming Algorithm field is not configurable for Application policies. The field displays the type of trimming algorithm in use.

Step 9

In the Offsite drop-down list, select one of the following options:

•

Send all Files Offsite

•

Do Not Send Files Offsite

Step 10

Select the desired schedule from the Schedule drop-down list.

Step 11

To activate this backup task, select the Enable this task in Policy checkbox. To disable this backup task without deleting it, you can clear this checkbox.

Step 12

Click OK .

Configuring and Testing Access to the Exchange Server

Access between the SonicWALL CDP appliance and the Exchange server where the user mailboxes reside can be configured to require authentication credentials or not. When you add an application object for a user mailbox backup, you can choose to add authentication credentials if required by the Exchange server. In either case, you can use the Authentication dialog box to test the connection between the SonicWALL CDP appliance and the Exchange server.

Note

If no authentication credentials are entered, the actual backup process uses the local SYSTEM account to access the Microsoft Exchange database.

Before configuring a User Mailbox application object to use credentials when accessing the Exchange server, you must first configure the credentials on the Exchange server. The user name must have appropriate privileges to access user mailbox data on the Exchange server. For more information about configuring users and access privileges on Microsoft Exchange, see the following Microsoft knowledge base articles:

http:/support.microsoft.com/kb/821897

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/556045

Removing User Mailboxes from the Backup Task

This section describes how to remove a user mailbox from the list of mailboxes scheduled for backup.

To remove a user mailbox from the backup task, perform the following steps:

Step 1

In the SonicWALL CDP Agent User Interface, click the Policies tab.

Step 2

In the left pane, select Applications .

Step 3

In the right pane, click the Edit button for the application object you wish to edit. The Edit Application window opens.

Step 4

Clear the checkbox for the mailbox you wish to delete.

Step 5

Click OK .

 

Verifying User Mailbox Backup Activity

This section describes how to tell if your user mailbox backups are working correctly. You can view log entries showing the backups in the Status page of the SonicWALL CDP Agent User Interface.

You should see log entries showing backups right after the first scheduled backup after creating a backup task for one or more user mailboxes, and then after each scheduled backup.

Step 1

In the SonicWALL CDP Agent User Interface, click the Status tab.

Step 2

Optionally, to view backup status on a different appliance, click the change appliance button in the left pane.

Step 3

View the backup status in the right pane.

Backing Up a Microsoft Exchange Storage Group

You can backup and restore a Microsoft Exchange Storage Group by using the SonicWALL CDP Microsoft Exchange InfoStore Backup and Restore server application in the SonicWALL CDP Agent User Interface. The Storage Group, or InfoStore, is backed up onto your SonicWALL CDP appliance.

For Microsoft Exchange 2010 on Windows Server 2008, SonicWALL CDP supports backup and restore on a multi-application, single server deployment, in which the same server has several applications installed, such as Exchange, SQL, and Active Directory.

In the Agent User Interface, you can create a Microsoft Exchange - InfoStore application object for for one or more storage groups, input the login credentials for the Exchange server, configure a backup schedule, create a backup task, optionally select offsite backup, and restore storage groups back to the Exchange server. For information about restoring a Storage Group, see the “Recovering a Microsoft Exchange Storage Group” section .

Note

The SonicWALL CDP appliance must be licensed for server applications. On the SonicWALL CDP 110 and 210 platforms, this feature requires the purchase of the SonicWALL CDP 110/210 5 Server Applications License upgrade. This license allows you to back up five applications that are installed on your server, such as Exchange, SQL, Active Directory, and others.

The SonicWALL CDP Microsoft Exchange InfoStore Backup and Restore feature includes the following capabilities:

•

Ability to set and manage the backup schedule

•

Optional automatic backup to an offsite location

•

Retention of multiple backup versions

How Does InfoStore Backup and Restore Work?

The SonicWALL CDP Microsoft Exchange InfoStore Backup and Restore feature is implemented as a server application that is automatically discovered by the SonicWALL CDP Agent User Interface. To get started using the feature, select the Policies tab and then select Applications in the left pane of the Agent User Interface. To backup a storage group, you must configure an application object, a schedule, and a backup task that includes both the application object and the schedule.

The InfoStore application allows you to add or remove individual Microsoft Exchange Storage Groups for backup, set backup schedules, restore specific backups of the Exchange server, and configure offsite backup. You can view log entries in the SonicWALL CDP Agent User Interface on the Status tab to verify that backups are successful.

Installation Prerequisites

This section lists the necessary prerequisites for successful operation of the Microsoft Exchange - InfoStore server application on the SonicWALL CDP Agent User Interface. For information about supported servers and versions of Exchange, see the “Supported Platforms and Deployment Requirements” section .

ESE Backup Client DLL/ CDOEXM Requirements

SonicWALL CDP uses the Exchange Backup and Restore API to access Microsoft Exchange. The Microsoft ESE Backup Client DLL (EsEbCli2.dll) should be installed along with Microsoft Exchange, and must be accessible by SonicWALL CDP Web Management Interface and Agent User Interface. The Collaboration Data Objects for Exchange Management (CDOEXM) APIs are also used to automate the restore procedure, but not required by this feature.

You can copy the EsEbCli2.dll file from your Microsoft installation disk, or download it from Microsoft, or copy it manually from another location into the SonicWALL Continuous Data Protection folder where the Agent client was installed. The default program installation folder location is:

C:\Program Files\SonicWALL\SonicWALL Continuous Data Protection

Note

Version 8.1.240.3 of EsEbcli2.dll is required by SonicWALL CDP.

Adding a Storage Group Application Object

To backup a storage group, you must configure an application object, a schedule, and a backup task that includes both the application object and the schedule. This section describes how to create the application object.

To create an application object for Microsoft Exchange Storage Group backup, perform the following steps:

Step 1

In the SonicWALL CDP Agent User Interface, click the Policies tab.

Step 2

In the left pane, click Applications .

Step 3

In the right pane, click the Plus button at the lower right corner. The Add Application window opens.

Step 4

Type a descriptive name for the application object into the Name field.

Step 5

Select Microsoft Exchange - InfoStore in the Application drop-down list. The list of available applications is automatically populated through a discovery process. For proper discovery, the Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy and VSS Writer services must not be disabled. See “Backup and Recovery Troubleshooting” for more information.

Step 6

Under Application items , select the checkboxes for one or more storage groups to back up.

Step 7

In the Add Application window, click OK to add the application object.

The new application object appears in the Policies screen of the Agent User Interface.

Note

Before the backup will occur, you must also configure a schedule for this application object, and a backup task that includes both the application object and the schedule.

Scheduling Backups for Storage Groups

To backup a storage group, you must configure an application object, a schedule, and a backup task that includes both the application object and the schedule. This section describes how to create the schedule object.

Note

You can use the same schedule object in more than one backup task.

To configure a schedule for storage group backups, perform the following steps:

Step 1

In the SonicWALL CDP Agent User Interface, click the Policies tab.

Step 2

In the left pane, select Schedules .

Step 3

In the right pane, click the Plus button at the lower right corner. The Add Schedule window opens.

Step 4

Type a descriptive name for the schedule into the Name field.

Step 5

Select any of the following tabs to configure a schedule that meets your requirements:

•

Day Interval – The backup occurs every so many days calculated from a particular date.

–

Select the number of days for the interval between backups.

–

Select a start date. By default, the interval is calculated from the current date.

–

Select a time to run the backup on those days.

•

Days of the Week – The backup runs on certain days of the week.

–

Select the days of the week, Sunday through Saturday, on which to run the backup.

–

Select the time at which to start the backup.

•

Days of the Month – The backup occurs on certain days of the month.

–

Select the days of the month on which to run the backup. Select Last for the last day of the month.

–

Select the time at which to start the backup.

•

Specific Dates – The backup occurs on the selected dates.

–

Click the small calendar and then select the date(s).

–

Select the time at which to start the backup.

Step 6

Click OK .

Configuring a Backup Task for Storage Group Backups

A backup task includes both an application object and a schedule for the backup. Without a backup task, no backups will occur.

For offsite backup, you can choose the Send All Files Offsite option when adding or editing a backup task.

Note

Before creating a backup task, create the application object and schedule to be included in the task.

To create a backup task for a storage group backup, perform the following steps:

Step 1

In the SonicWALL CDP Agent User Interface, click the Policies tab.

Step 2

In the left pane, select Backup Tasks .

Step 3

In the right pane, click the Plus button at the lower right corner. The Add Backup Task window opens.

Step 4

Type a descriptive name for the backup task into the Name field.

Step 5

Select Application from the Select File Type drop-down list.

Step 6

Select the desired application object from the Application Data drop-down list.

Step 7

Type the desired number of backup revisions to keep into the Number of Versions field. The default is 2.

Step 8

The Trimming Algorithm field is not configurable for Application policies. The field displays the type of trimming algorithm in use.

Step 9

In the Offsite drop-down list, select one of the following options:

•

Send all Files Offsite – Offsite backup settings must already be configured in the SonicWALL CDP Web Management Interface, and the offsite appliance must be available.

•

Do Not Send Files Offsite – No files will be sent offsite.

Step 10

Select the desired schedule from the Schedule drop-down list.

Step 11

To activate this backup task, select the Enable this task in Policy checkbox. To disable this backup task without deleting it, you can clear this checkbox.

Step 12

Click OK .

Removing a Storage Group from the Backup Task

To remove a storage group from the list of groups scheduled for backup, perform the following steps:

Step 1

In the SonicWALL CDP Agent User Interface, click the Policies tab.

Step 2

In the left pane, select Applications .

Step 3

In the right pane, click the Edit button for the application object you wish to edit. The Edit Application window opens.

Step 4

Clear the checkbox for the storage group you wish to delete.

Step 5

Click OK .

Verifying InfoStore Backup Activity

This section describes how to tell if your Microsoft Exchange backups are working correctly. You can view log entries showing the backups in the Status page of the SonicWALL CDP Agent User Interface.

You should see log entries showing backups after each scheduled backup after creating a backup task for one or more storage groups.

Step 1

In the SonicWALL CDP Agent User Interface, click the Status tab.

Step 2

Optionally, to view backup status on a different appliance, click the change appliance button in the left pane. This only applies if the agent has previously backed up files on a different appliance.

View the backup status in the right pane. Obtaining EsEbcli2.dll from the Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 Installation CD

This section describes how to manually obtain the EsEbcli2.dll from your Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 Installation CD.

Step 1

Navigate to setup\i386\exchange\bin folder of the Exchange 2007 installation CD

Step 2

Locate version 8.1.240.3 of the EsEbcli2.dll file, right-click it and select Copy from the pop up menu.

Step 3

Navigate to C:\Program Files(x86)\SonicWALL\SonicWALL Continuous Data Protection\ folder on your machine.

Step 4

Right-click inside the folder and select Paste from the pop up menu.

Step 5

Restart the CDP Agent User Interface and the SonicWALL CDP Agent Service.

The Microsoft Exchange - InfoStore application should function properly.

Obtaining EsEbcli2.dll from the Microsoft Download Center

This section describes how to manually obtain the EsEbcli2.dll from the Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 1, available at the Microsoft Download Center.

Step 1

Navigate to Microsoft Download Center at < http://www.microsoft.com/downloads >.

Step 2

Type in “E2K7SP1EN32.exe” in the search window and select Go .

Step 3

List of results will appear. Select the Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 1 page.

Step 4

Scroll down to the bottom of the page and select the Download button next to E2K7SP1EN32.exe file. Make sure to download the 32-bit version, the 64-bit version does not include the missing DLL file.

Step 5

Extract the E2K7SP1EN32.exe file, making sure to note down the extraction folder.

Step 6

Navigate to the extraction folder from step 3 and to the following path <setup\serverroles\common\path> inside the folder.

Step 7

Locate version 8.1.240.3 of the EsEbcli2.dll file, right-click it and select Copy from the pop up menu.

Step 8

Navigate to C:\Program Files(x86)\SonicWALL\SonicWALL Continuous Data Protection\ folder.

Step 9

Right-click inside the folder and select Paste from the pop up menu.

Step 10

Restart the CDP Agent User Interface and the SonicWALL CDP Agent Service.

The Microsoft Exchange - InfoStore application should function properly.

Backing up System State and Active Directory

Active Directory is included within the System State application object in SonicWALL CDP 6.0 and higher. When creating a System State application object, you can select components, including Active Directory, to back up. This allows you to backup and recover Active Directory revisions from agent machines together with interdependent system files to provide a consistent environment.

Note

System State and Active Directory cannot be backed up from the Web Management Interface. Use the Agent User Interface to configure System State and Active Directory for backup.

See the following sections:

•

“Creating an Application Object for System State and Active Directory” section

•

“Scheduling Backups for System State and Active Directory” section

•

“Configuring a Backup Task for System State and Active Directory Backups” section

•

“Verifying System State and Active Directory Backup Activity” section

Creating an Application Object for System State and Active Directory

To backup System State and Active Directory, you must configure an application object, a schedule, and a backup task that includes both the application object and the schedule. This section describes how to create the application object.

To backup System State and Active Directory using the Agent User Interface, perform the following steps:

Step 1

Open the SonicWALL Agent User Interface on the Domain Controller.

Step 2

In the SonicWALL CDP Agent User Interface, click the Policies tab.

Step 3

In the left pane, click Applications .

Step 4

In the right pane, click the Plus button at the lower right corner. The Add Application window opens.

Step 5

Type a descriptive name for the application object into the Name field.

Step 6

Select System State in the Application drop-down list. The list of available applications is automatically populated through a discovery process. For proper discovery, the Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy service must not be disabled. See “Backup and Recovery Troubleshooting” for more information.

Step 7

Under Application items , select the checkboxes for one or more System State components to back up. You can select Active Directory in this screen. SonicWALL recommends selecting the Select All checkbox to ensure that all associated System State files are backed up along with Active Directory.

The exact list of system components that make up your computer's System State data depend on the computer's operating system and configuration. For example, on a Windows Server you might see the following:

•

Boot and System files

•

System files

•

License files

•

PerformanceCounters files

•

IISMETASBASE

•

COM+REGDB

•

File Replication Service

•

Active Directory

•

Registry

•

Windows Management Instrumentation

•

Event Logs

Step 8

In the Add Application window, click OK to add the application object.

The new application object appears in the Policies screen of the Agent User Interface.

Note

Before the backup will occur, you must also configure a schedule for this application object, and a backup task that includes both the application object and the schedule.

Scheduling Backups for System State and Active Directory

To backup System State and Active Directory, you must configure an application object, a schedule, and a backup task that includes both the application object and the schedule. This section describes how to create the schedule object.

Note

You can use the same schedule object in more than one backup task.

To configure a schedule for System State and Active Directory backups, perform the following steps:

Step 1

In the SonicWALL CDP Agent User Interface, click the Policies tab.

Step 2

In the left pane, select Schedules .

Step 3

In the right pane, click the Plus button at the lower right corner. The Add Schedule window opens.

Step 4

Type a descriptive name for the schedule into the Name field.

Step 5

Select any of the following tabs to configure a schedule that meets your requirements:

•

Day Interval – The backup occurs every so many days calculated from a particular date.

–

Select the number of days for the interval between backups.

–

Select a start date. By default, the interval is calculated from the current date.

–

Select a time to run the backup on those days.

•

Days of the Week – The backup runs on certain days of the week.

–

Select the days of the week, Sunday through Saturday, on which to run the backup.

–

Select the time at which to start the backup.

•

Days of the Month – The backup occurs on certain days of the month.

–

Select the days of the month on which to run the backup. Select Last for the last day of the month.

–

Select the time at which to start the backup.

•

Specific Dates – The backup occurs on the selected dates.

–

Click the small calendar and then select the date(s).

–

Select the time at which to start the backup.

Step 6

Click OK .

Configuring a Backup Task for System State and Active Directory Backups

A backup task includes both an application object and a schedule for the backup. Without a backup task, no backups will occur.

For offsite backup, you can choose the Send All Files Offsite option when adding or editing a backup task.

Note

Before creating a backup task, create the application object and schedule to be included in the task.

To create a backup task for a System State and Active Directory backup, perform the following steps:

Step 1

In the SonicWALL CDP Agent User Interface, click the Policies tab.

Step 2

In the left pane, select Backup Tasks .

Step 3

In the right pane, click the Plus button at the lower right corner. The Add Backup Task window opens.

Step 4

Type a descriptive name for the backup task into the Name field.

Step 5

Select Application from the Select File Type drop-down list.

Step 6

Select the desired application object from the Application Data drop-down list.

Step 7

Type the desired number of backup revisions to keep into the Number of Versions field. The default is 2.

Step 8

The Trimming Algorithm field is not configurable for Application policies. The field displays the type of trimming algorithm in use.

Step 9

In the Offsite drop-down list, select one of the following options:

•

Send all Files Offsite – Offsite backup settings must already be configured in the SonicWALL CDP Web Management Interface, and the offsite appliance must be available.

•

Do Not Send Files Offsite – No files will be sent offsite.

Step 10

Select the desired schedule from the Schedule drop-down list.

Step 11

To activate this backup task, select the Enable this task in Policy checkbox. To disable this backup task without deleting it, you can clear this checkbox.

Step 12

Click OK .

Verifying System State and Active Directory Backup Activity

This section describes how to tell if your System State backups are working correctly. You can view log entries showing the backups in the Status page of the SonicWALL CDP Agent User Interface.

You should see log entries showing backups after each scheduled backup after creating a backup task for System State and Active Directory.

Step 1

In the SonicWALL CDP Agent User Interface, click the Status tab.

Step 2

Optionally, to view backup status on a different appliance, click the change appliance button in the left pane.

View the backup status in the right pane.

Step 3

Click the My Backups tab and view the list of backup revisions.

Backing up Microsoft SQL Server

Backing up Microsoft SQL Server using SonicWALL CDP allows users to store and retrieve Microsoft SQL Server revisions from an agent machine. Microsoft SQL databases are configured for backup using the SonicWALL CDP Agent User Interface.

Note

Microsoft SQL Server backup can only be configured using the Agent User Interface.

During SQL backup and restore using CDP, the Agent Service directly interfaces with the Microsoft SQL server through the Open Database Connectivity (ODBC) API, using an SQL-ODBC driver that is installed with SQL. By ODBC, the Agent service communicates to the SQL server through transactional SQL commands.

When the SonicWALL CDP Agent Service backs up an SQL database, it instructs SQL to place the data in a certain location in memory. The Agent Service will then process the data one block at a time, compressing it and sending to the appliance.

The Agent Service first needs to connect to the database and authenticate using either Windows user account credentials or using an SQL account. More details are provided in the “SQL Authentication” section .

This section contains the following subsections:

•

“Adding a SQL Server Backup Application Object” section

•

“Scheduling Backups for Microsoft SQL” section

•

“Configuring a Backup Task for Microsoft SQL Database Backups” section

•

“Verifying SQL Account Configuration” section

•

“SQL Authentication” section

Adding a SQL Server Backup Application Object

To backup Microsoft SQL databases, you must configure an application object, a schedule, and a backup task that includes both the application object and the schedule. This section describes how to create the application object.

To create an application object for Microsoft SQL database backup, perform the following steps:

Step 1

Open the SonicWALL Agent User Interface on the SQL server.

Step 2

In the SonicWALL CDP Agent User Interface, click the Policies tab.

Step 3

In the left pane, click Applications .

Step 4

In the right pane, click the Plus button at the lower right corner. The Add Application window opens.

Step 5

Type a descriptive name for the application object into the Name field.

Step 6

Select either Microsoft SQL Server or Microsoft SQL Server Desktop Engine (MSDE) in the Application drop-down list. The list of available applications is automatically populated through a discovery process. For proper discovery, the Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy and VSS Writer services must not be disabled. See “Backup and Recovery Troubleshooting” for more information.

Step 7

Under Application items , select the checkboxes for one or more databases to back up.

Step 8

In the Add Application window, click OK to add the application object.

The new application object appears in the Policies screen of the Agent User Interface.

Note

Before the backup will occur, you must also configure a schedule for this application object, and a backup task that includes both the application object and the schedule.

Scheduling Backups for Microsoft SQL

To backup Microsoft SQL databases, you must configure an application object, a schedule, and a backup task that includes both the application object and the schedule. This section describes how to create the schedule object.

Note

You can use the same schedule object in more than one backup task.

To configure a schedule for Microsoft SQL database backups, perform the following steps:

Step 1

In the SonicWALL CDP Agent User Interface, click the Policies tab.

Step 2

In the left pane, select Schedules .

Step 3

In the right pane, click the Plus button at the lower right corner. The Add Schedule window opens.

Step 4

Type a descriptive name for the schedule into the Name field.

Step 5

Select any of the following tabs to configure a schedule that meets your requirements:

•

Day Interval – The backup occurs every so many days calculated from a particular date.

–

Select the number of days for the interval between backups.

–

Select a start date. By default, the interval is calculated from the current date.

–

Select a time to run the backup on those days.

•

Days of the Week – The backup runs on certain days of the week.

–

Select the days of the week, Sunday through Saturday, on which to run the backup.

–

Select the time at which to start the backup.

•

Days of the Month – The backup occurs on certain days of the month.

–

Select the days of the month on which to run the backup. Select Last for the last day of the month.

–

Select the time at which to start the backup.

•

Specific Dates – The backup occurs on the selected dates.

–

Click the small calendar and then select the date(s).

–

Select the time at which to start the backup.

Step 6

Click OK .

Configuring a Backup Task for Microsoft SQL Database Backups

A backup task includes both an application object and a schedule for the backup. Without a backup task, no backups will occur.

For offsite backup, you can choose the Send All Files Offsite option when adding or editing a backup task.

Note

Before creating a backup task, create the application object and schedule to be included in the task.

To create a backup task for Microsoft SQL database backup, perform the following steps:

Step 1

In the SonicWALL CDP Agent User Interface, click the Policies tab.

Step 2

In the left pane, select Backup Tasks .

Step 3

In the right pane, click the Plus button at the lower right corner. The Add Backup Task window opens.

Step 4

Type a descriptive name for the backup task into the Name field.

Step 5

Select Application from the Select File Type drop-down list.

Step 6

Select the desired application object from the Application Data drop-down list.

Step 7

Type the desired number of backup revisions to keep into the Number of Versions field. The default is 2.

Step 8

The Trimming Algorithm field is not configurable for Application policies. The field displays the type of trimming algorithm in use.

Step 9

In the Offsite drop-down list, select one of the following options:

•

Send all Files Offsite – Offsite backup settings must already be configured in the SonicWALL CDP Web Management Interface, and the offsite appliance must be available.

•

Do Not Send Files Offsite – No files will be sent offsite.

Step 10

Select the desired schedule from the Schedule drop-down list.

Step 11

To activate this backup task, select the Enable this task in Policy checkbox. To disable this backup task without deleting it, you can clear this checkbox.

Step 12

Click OK .

Removing a SQL Database from the Backup Task

To remove a database from the list of SQL databases scheduled for backup, perform the following steps:

Step 1

In the SonicWALL CDP Agent User Interface, click the Policies tab.

Step 2

In the left pane, select Applications .

Step 3

In the right pane, click the Edit button for the application object you wish to edit. The Edit Application window opens.

Step 4

Clear the checkbox for the database you wish to delete.

Step 5

Click OK .

Verifying Microsoft SQL Backup Activity

This section describes how to tell if your Microsoft SQL backups are working correctly. You can view log entries showing the backups on the Status page of the SonicWALL CDP Agent User Interface.

You should see log entries showing backups after each scheduled backup after creating a backup task for SQL.

To view the status of SQL backups:

Step 1

In the SonicWALL CDP Agent User Interface, click the Status tab.

Step 2

Optionally, to view backup status on a different appliance, click the change appliance button in the left pane.

View the backup status in the right pane.

Step 3

Click the My Backups tab and view the list of backup revisions.

 

SQL Configuration Levels

SQL backup configuration is set at different levels. These are:

•

Agent (or application) Level: Offsite backup is set on the entire agent.

•

SQL Instance Level: More than one SQL instance can be running on a same machine.

•

Database Level: An instance can contain one or more databases. The databases are backed up independently.

Servers normally have only one instance, which matches the Windows computer name. SQL instances can be created to allow for completely separate database management access to different databases.

Also, an instance will be created for each database version installed on the same machine. For example, SQL 2000 and SQL 2005 can run on the same server, but they will have different instances.

 

For example, Offsite Backup is applied to the entire agent, meaning that all selected instances and databases will be backed up to offsite. Authentication is set at an instance level.

Offsite Backup of SQL

Offsite Service backup of CDP is set at the agent level when configuring the backup task. This implies that all SQL instances and databases selected on the agent will be backed up to the Offsite Service.

You can view files backed up offsite by expanding the Offsite option while logged into the Agent as Administrator. For information about this, see the “Administrative Use of the Agent User Interface” section .

SQL Database Maintenance

Databases can become corrupted over time. Therefore, it is common practice to run a Database Consistency Check (DBCC) periodically to make sure that the database is healthy.

Verifying SQL Account Configuration

In order to backup a database, the SQL account used to access the SQL database must have:

•

System administrators role

•

Database Owner Role (db_owner)

•

Access Rights to Database to back up

In general, a user called “sa” is created when SQL is installed.

To verify the SQL account configuration, perform the following steps:

Step 1

In the SQL management Interface, highlight the SQL account on the right hand side of the screen and double click it.

Step 2

Expand the security tab under the SQL server instance.

Step 3

Click Logins .

Step 4

Click the Server Roles tab.

Step 5

Select the System Administrators role.

Step 6

Click the Database Access tab.

Step 7

Make sure that the user has the db_owner role, and make sure that access is permitted to the databases to backup.

SQL Authentication

For access to Microsoft SQL Server, SonicWALL CDP uses Windows Authentication in which the Windows user credentials are submitted to SQL.

 

This section contains the following subsections:

•

“Authentication Modes in Microsoft SQL Server” section

•

“About Windows Authentication” section

•

“About SQL Server Authentication” section

•

“Setting Up Windows Authentication Mode Security” section

•

“Setting Up Mixed Mode Security” section

Authentication Modes in Microsoft SQL Server

Microsoft SQL Server can operate in one of two security (authentication) modes:

•

Windows Authentication Mode (Windows Authentication)

•

Mixed Mode (Windows Authentication and SQL Server Authentication)

Windows Authentication mode allows a user to connect through a Microsoft Windows user account.

Mixed Mode allows users to connect to an instance of SQL Server using either Windows Authentication or SQL Server Authentication. Users who connect through a Windows user account can make use of trusted connections in either Windows Authentication Mode or Mixed Mode.

SQL Server Authentication is provided for backward compatibility. For example, if you create a single Windows 2000 group and add all necessary users to that group, you will need to grant the Windows 2000 group login rights to SQL Server and access to any necessary databases.

About Windows Authentication

When a user connects through a Windows user account, SQL Server revalidates the account name and password by calling back to Windows for the information.

SQL Server achieves login security integration with Windows by using the security attributes of a network user to control login access. A user's network security attributes are established at network login time and are validated by a Windows domain controller. When a network user tries to connect, SQL Server uses Windows-based facilities to determine the validated network user name. SQL Server then verifies that the person is who they say they are, and then permits or denies login access based on that network user name alone, without requiring a separate login name and password.

Login security integration operates over any supported network protocol in SQL Server.

Note that if a user attempts to connect to an instance of SQL Server providing a blank login name, SQL Server uses Windows Authentication. Additionally, if a user attempts to connect to an instance of SQL Server configured for Windows Authentication Mode by using a specific login, the login is ignored and Windows Authentication is used.

Windows Authentication has certain benefits over SQL Server Authentication, primarily due to its integration with Windows security system. Windows security provides more features, such as secure validation and encryption of passwords, auditing, password expiration, minimum password length, and account lockout after multiple invalid login requests.

Because Windows users and groups are maintained only by Windows, SQL Server reads information about a user's membership in groups when the user connects. If changes are made to the accessibility rights of a connected user, the changes become effective the next time the user connects to an instance of SQL Server or logs on to Windows (depending on the type of change).

About SQL Server Authentication

When a user connects with a specified login name and password from a non-trusted connection, SQL Server performs the authentication itself by checking to see if a SQL Server login account has been set up and if the specified password matches the one previously recorded. If SQL Server does not have a login account set, authentication fails and the user receives an error message.

SQL Server Authentication is provided for backward compatibility because applications written for SQL Server version 7.0 or earlier may require the use of SQL Server logins and passwords.

Also, SQL Server Authentication may be required for connections with clients other than Windows clients.

Figure 1

SQL Server Security Decision Tree

Setting Up Windows Authentication Mode Security

To set up Windows Authentication Mode security with the SQL management interface:

Step 1

Expand a server group.

Step 2

Right-click a server, and then click Properties .

Step 3

On the Security tab, under Authentication , click Windows only .

Step 4

Under Audit level , select the level at which user accesses to Microsoft SQL Server are recorded in the SQL Server error log:

•

None causes no auditing to be performed.

•

Success causes only successful login attempts to be audited.

•

Failure causes only failed login attempts to be audited.

•

All causes successful and failed login attempts to be audited.

Setting Up Mixed Mode Security

To set up Mixed Mode security with the SQL management interface:

Step 1

Expand a server group.

Step 2

Right-click a server, and then click Properties .

Step 3

On the Security tab, under Authentication , click SQL Server and Windows .

Step 4

Under Audit level , select the level at which user accesses to Microsoft SQL Server are recorded in the SQL Server error log:

•

None causes no auditing to be performed.

•

Success causes only successful login attempts to be audited.

•

Failure causes only failed login attempts to be audited.

•

All causes successful and failed login attempts to be audited.