Yes, SQL Backup server components must be installed on each instance of SQL Server.

Totally you have 7 instances of SQL Server, it means that you need to purchase 7 licenses for SQL Backup.

SQL Backup uses its own data compression function, which does not depend on a version and edition of SQL Server.

The compression level selection allows you to find a compromise between the backup speed and file size. At the same time the backup time execution can be reduced up to 80% compared with a native tool due to lower load on the disk subsystem.

Yes, SQL Backup can do it. To do this you need to select SQL Server as a backup type in the Backup Wizard.

SQL Backup performs log shipping using its compression and encryption features, which make this process faster and more secure.

When creating a policy, you can select whether a task on servers with different time-zones is launched at servers standard time or simultaneously against the console time. This option is called “Task Scheduling in different time zones” at Step 1 of the Policy Wizard.

SQL Backup Policy Engine provides the following features:

• Using SQL Backup backup functionality
• Ability to deploy and monitor policies on multiple servers of different versions simultaneously
• Easy-to-use policy monitoring mechanism
• Ability to use templates

A policy can contain both multiple tasks of different types and multiple tasks of the same type.

Yes, each task can have one or more schedules.

Yes, you can perform a maintenance task using the “Quick Maintenance Actions” context menu item of the Server tree.

Several policies can be deployed to a single server, their runtime can be the same and the execution time can intersect. However, 2 tasks of backup/recovery/log shipping can not be executed simultaneously on a single SQL Server instance.

You can convert SQL Server maintenance plans into SQL Backup policies using the Maintenance Plan Conversion Wizard (“Maintenance Policies | Convert from Maintenance Plan” context menu of the Server tree).

SQL Backup has the e-mail notification mechanism informing of the policy execution results. Also SQL Backup Console displays statuses and results of policies while connecting to a server.

Yes, you can. However, your SQL Backup Console configuration must be accessible from all your computers.
The configuration can be stored both in a file and in a database on any SQL Server. In this case it is recommended to store the configuration on SQL Server. To change the configuration storage location, call “Options | Save Configuration”, specify a new location and enable the “Switch to saved configuration” option to use the new location. In SQL Backup Console, installed on other computers, you should switch to the new location using the “Options | Switch Configuration” dialogue.

Yes, you can install SQL Backup server components remotely from SQL Backup Console. In the Server tree select SQL Server, on which you want to install the components and click “Install Server-Side SQL Backup Components” in the context menu. Then follow the instructions of the wizard.
For remote installation the following conditions must be met:

• Installing via SQL Server: You must have an account with SQL Server System Administrator Privileges, such as sa. SQL Server service must be run under an account with Windows Local Administrator Privileges, such as LocalSystem.
• Installing via NETBIOS: You must have Windows System Administrator Privileges on the remote computer. You must have an account with SQL Server System Administrator Privileges, such as sa.

Yes, you can use the special installation mode of SQL Backup.

1. Copy the installation package (SQLBackupSetup-1.x.x.xxxx.msi) to the server machine.
2. Run the following command as Administrator: SQLBackupSetup-1.x.x.xxxx.msi -var:"ServerInstall=1"
3. Follow the steps of the Installation Wizard. It will automatically find all local server instances to install server components.

To run SQL Backup you can use any account with the following privileges:

• Access to SQL Server with Server Administrator Privileges.
• Write access to a directory which is used for creating backups.
• Ability of authorization on another computer on a network for read/record access to a general directory during log shipping process.

НFor example, a system domain user with all the mentioned above privileges can be used. If log shipping process is not planned, Local System embedded account can be used as a system user account.

This error occurs if SQL Server Agent receives wrong information about the privilege set of user NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM, that is the owner of the executing task. The problem can be solved in one of the following ways:

• Change SQL Backup service account to any other one that has all the task launch privileges on the server. Recreate a policy.
• Change the owner of SqlBackup_XXXXXXXX_Task to another user having the permissions to launch tasks.
• If BUILTIN\Administrators account was removed from the server, restore it using the administrator privileges.

You can view the list of all functional differences Features page.

Yes, you can upgrade SQL Backup to SQL Backup Pro at any time by paying the difference in cost between SQL Backup and SQL Backup Pro, that is 325.00 USD.

The basic price of SQL Backup includes 1 Year Maintenance. Once the Maintenance term expires, you will be able to continue using the software without any limitations; however, you won’t have access to any product updates released after your maintenance expiration date.

The log shipping mechanism is envisaged to increase the failover protection of DB configuration in Microsoft SQL Server. Its essence reduces to the copying of the DB transaction log backup files of a single instance of SQL Server to another instance and subsequent restoring them to the target database without providing shared access. Control of the backup file copying and restoration process while log shipping automation may present a certain difficulty because any “missed” backup file on the target server will lead to impossibility of applying the subsequent files and the neсessity to restore from the full DB backup. More Info

EMS SQL Backup has several predefined policy templates that allow adjusting and planning minimal required set of operations for maintaining SQL Server. This article describes the fastest method to setup maintenance of several SQL Server instances using the policy templates in the program. More Info