Veeam Explorer for SharePoint item restore fails due to SQL Express DB size limitation

Challenge

You receive the following error when performing SharePoint item restore:

CREATE DATABASE or ALTER DATABASE failed because the resulting cumulative database size would exceed your licensed limit of 10240 MB per database

or

CREATE DATABASE or ALTER DATABASE failed because the resulting cumulative database size would exceed your licensed limit of 4096 MB per database




Veeam.SharePoint.Explorer_<date>_<time.log contains the following:

[Timestamp]    3 (4376) Openning database...
[Timestamp]    3 (4376)   Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 instance 'VEEAM\SQL2008R2' (version 661)
[Timestamp]    3 (4376)   Database '\\drive\Images\SP10_SharePoint_Sites_Content1.mdf' (version 661)
[Timestamp]    3 (4376) Connecting to SQL database engine...
[Timestamp]    3 (4376)   Successfully connected.
[Timestamp]    3 (4376) Attaching database...
[Timestamp]    1 (4824) Application Failure. Terminating.
[Timestamp]    1 (4824) Error: Safe handle has been closed

…

Cause

In order to show content of the SharePoint backup Veeam Explorer for SharePoint utilizes native SQL database engine so that you need to specify available production SQL server in the options of Veeam Explorer for SharePoint:


Apparently, provided SQL server might be Express Edition as a result you may face with known limitation of the SQL Server:

• SQL Server 2005/2008 Express Edition – maximum database size 4 GiB;
• SQL Server 2008 R2/2012 Express Edition – maximum database size 10 GiB;

Solution

Specify SQL Server Full Edition in the options of Veeam Explorer for Sharepoint

SQL Staging Server: https://helpcenter.veeam.com/docs/backup/explorers/vesp_staging_microsoft_sql_server.html?ver=95
Configuring SQL Staging Server: https://helpcenter.veeam.com/docs/backup/explorers/vesp_sql_server_settings.html?ver=95