How to manually backup a SQL DB

Challenge

This article documents how to manually backup a Microsoft SQL Database.

Solution

Using SQL Server Management Studio

1. Open Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio (May need to be installed separately)
2. Connect to the "ServerName\Instance" of the server that has the DB you want backed up.
3. Expand the Databases tab to get to the DB you want to back up.
4. Right click the desired DB --> Tasks --> Back Up...
5. Set "Backup Type" to "Full"
6. Go through the rest of the General and Options tab information to set the options to what you want. 
7. Click OK to start the Backup process.

Using sqlcmd

If SQL Management Studio is not installed, the Veeam database can be collected using SQLCMD:

1. Check the name of the SQL instance and Veeam database in windows registry
   • HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\VeeaM\Veeam Backup and Replication\SqlDatabaseName
   • HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\VeeaM\Veeam Backup and Replication\SqlInstanceName
   • HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\VeeaM\Veeam Backup and Replication\SqlServerName
2. Open an Administrative Command Prompt and connect to SQL instance:

   SQLCMD -S (SqlServerName)\SqlInstanceName

   
   Note: In case you have SQL server authentication enabled you may define username using '-U' parameter.

3. Backup the Veeam database:

   BACKUP DATABASE SqlDatabaseName TO DISK = 'C:\VeeamDB.bak'
   GO

More Information

Alternatively you can copy the .MDF (database file) and .LDF (database temp file) to a different location.  The default path for these files are "C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL10_50.'YourInstanceName'\MSSQL\DATA\" where "YourInstanceName" is the name of the SQL instance.

Please note that information provided to Veeam for purposes of customer support may be considered protected under certain data protection regulations and/or internal company policies. A list of potentially sensitive data types is available in the following KB article. Veeam will only utilize this information for the specific purpose of providing customer support to you and will protect the information in accordance with its privacy policy. In any event, the information provided will be securely deleted after 45 inactive days as of the last upload to the FTP. If you would like it deleted sooner, please express this request directly to your support contact once the issue has been resolved.