Considerations and Limitations

This section lists considerations and known limitations of Veeam Explorer for Microsoft SQL Server.

General

• When Veeam Explorer for Microsoft SQL Server is installed on a server on which both Veeam Backup & Replication and Veeam Backup for Microsoft Office 365 are installed, the notification settings will be inherited from the Veeam Backup & Replication Global Notification settings.

Restore

• Veeam Explorer for Microsoft SQL Server does not support restore using PowerShell Direct, VIX API or vSphere Automation API.
• Table-level recovery is supported only for database tables with no external dependencies. Tables with external dependencies are tables extended to Microsoft Azure using the Stretch Database functionality and so on.
• To restore an encrypted database, consider reading this Veeam Knowledge Base article.
• The Replace logic is not supported when restoring schema objects.

• To restore a database from the AlwaysOn availability group node as of the selected transaction state, the nodes of such a group must be located in the same time zone.
• Databases located on VM disks excluded from backup are displayed in Veeam Explorer for Microsoft SQL Server with a question mark next to each database. It is not possible to restore data of such databases.

Publishing

• During publishing, Veeam Explorer for Microsoft SQL Server mounts VMs disks from the backup file to the target machine (under the C:\VeeamFLR directory), retrieves required database files and attaches associated databases directly to your SQL Server instance so that you can perform required operations using Microsoft SQL tools such as Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio.

When publishing to a cluster, all VMs disks become part of the target cluster. Publishing to a cluster requires a free drive letter on all cluster nodes according to the number of clustered disks in the backup.

• You can publish the same database more than once.
• After you unpublish a database, Veeam Explorer for Microsoft SQL Server detaches such a database from the target SQL Server but the restore point will continue to remain on the target machine for the next 15 minutes.
• If a Veeam Explorer for Microsoft SQL Server session has been terminated in any way other than by clicking Exit in the main menu (or by clicking the X button in the upper-right corner), then all the published databases will continue to remain attached to the target SQL Server with the Recovery pending state.
• If published databases have been renamed manually via SQL tools (for example, in Microsoft SQL Management Studio), then Veeam Explorer for Microsoft SQL Server will not be able to unpublish such databases properly. In this case, all the renamed databases will continue to remain attached to the target SQL Server and you will have to remove them manually using the SQL tools.
• Veeam Explorer for Microsoft SQL Server does not back up published databases.

• Upon closing the Veeam Explorer console, all the published databases will be detached from the target SQL Server instance automatically. The corresponding mount points will also be dismounted from under the C:\VeeamFLR directory.

Instant Recovery

• To restore an encrypted database, consider reading this Veeam Knowledge Base article.

• If you perform instant recovery of a database from the AlwaysOn availability group node, Veeam Explorer restores it as a standalone database.
• For desktop versions of Microsoft Windows (7, 8, 8.1, 10), you must perform instant recovery of multiple databases one by one. The limitation occurs because desktop versions of Microsoft Windows OS do not allow more than 20 incoming concurrent TCP/IP connections. For details, see Microsoft Windows 10 License Terms.

As a workaround, you can perform instant recovery of multiple databases in parallel using the Restore-VESQLIRDatabase PowerShell cmdlet.

• Instant recovery to an SQL Server cluster requires free drive letters on all cluster nodes. The number of free drive letters on each cluster node must be twice the number of clustered disks in the backup.