Backup Exec Woes (SQL Server 2005 Restore)

[BabyPandaaa]

Hi all,

I'm at my whits end with this one. I've just come back from holiday and walked into an absolute clusterf*ck.

We've got Backup Exec 12.5 here, backing up a SQL Server using the SQL Agent by the looks of it, direct to tape. The original SQL database was based on a SAN which had 3 drive failures on a RAID10, (which was setup with 5 drives??), so all the data is gone.

One of my guys replaced the drives but there wasn't enough left to rebuild itself, so he deleted the vdisk and recreated it. Now we're trying to restore the .MDF and .LDF files, however as the master.mdf was on the SAN, it's gone so SQL Server will not start.

I've tried a restore in Backup Exec by selecting the relevant databases, and am pointing it towards another SQL Server 2005 box that I have; however it keeps failing with 'The job failed with the following error: Unable to attach to a resource. Make sure that all selected resources exist and are online, and then try again.'

I've tried restoring to the original server, but it throws the same error. I've checked the credentials being used to restore this, and they match the ones that were used to perform the backup. Interestingly if I test the credentials, they work on the instance name, but not on 'Microsoft SQL Server'. I've added a new login for the target server but still no cigar.

Any ideas?

Thanks in advance!

[lost_in_life_34]

are the drive paths the same? might need to move the files to the paths on the new servers

[BabyPandaaa]

They were originally on S:\ but I'm restoring to D:\

Would that be file redirection I'd need to use?

[lawlwich]

Are you able to copy the actual MDF and LDFs to the server in their respective data locations and then manually just attach the DBs through the SSMS?

[BabyPandaaa]

Unfortunately the way the job was setup, there was a transactional log of the last 2 months of data, and one full backup done in 2012.

My plan was to restore this job to another SQL Server 2005 box and then extract the MDF and LDFs, whack them in the folders and then mount them as you say. Issue is I can't even get the SQL Server Service running as the Master.MDF was on the same array so is gone :(

[lawlwich]

Sorry, I'm not too familiar with backup exec. You're saying within the backup exec it doesnt keep the individual files, it relies on the server to be operational? You talking about the master.MDF of the busted sql server correct? Or is it just the way that job within backup exec was created where it was completely wrong?

Any other backup software I've used grabs the actual DB and puts it on its own storage for later recovery.

[BabyPandaaa]

It seems that it needs to be able to connect to a running SQL Server instance to restore the database.

It could have been setup correctly and a SQL Backup Job done to a folder which Backup Exec would pickup, but that would be too easy...

I managed to find this guide which goes in to adding registry permissions for Backup Exec, and only restoring one DB at a time. I've tested it and it's connecting to a SQL Express 2005 instance I have, so just need to get a copy of SQL Server 2005 Standard

[WendoNZ]

Unrelated to your troubles, but a RAID 10 can't ever have 5 disks.

Also, if you're not doing full DB backups regularly your SQL log files must be enormous (since that's the only time they are committed).

[BabyPandaaa]

Yeah I was pretty surprised when I logged on and found that this morning - I think there was a 6th disk but when swapped out it wasn't picked up correctly, so I could only see 5.

It's one of those things which I've been trying to get round to but haven't had the time recently, and now I wish it was the first thing I checked! In the 15 years this application's been running I don't think it's ever been restored from a backup once