Performing Backup with Command-Line Interface

You can perform backup of Microsoft SQL Server databases with Veeam Plug-in using the command-line interface.

To perform backup, do the following:

On the Microsoft SQL Server machine, navigate to the %PROGRAMFILES%\Veeam\Plugins\Microsoft SQL\ folder.
Run the MSSQLRecoveryManager.exe command with the required parameters. For more information, see Backup Parameters.

The following example shows a command to perform full backup of Microsoft SQL Server databases:

MSSQLRecoveryManager.exe --backup --d="IT" --d="Sales" --name="Database Backup" --description="Daily database backup" --type=full --parallelism=2 --instance="dlsql01\MSSQLSERVER" --retention=5 --use_compression --check_preferred

TIP

You can also use the available backup parameters to modify Veeam Plug-in for Microsoft SQL Server commands used in custom scripts. For information, see Exporting Backup Settings to Custom Script.

Exit Codes

The MSSQLRecoveryManager.exe command can return the following exit codes:

-1 — the service returns this code when the backup or restore process fails with an error.
0 — the service returns this code when the backup or restore process is successful.

Backup Parameters

You can specify the following parameters for backup of Microsoft SQL Server databases with the MSSQLRecoveryManager.exe command:

Command	Description
--help	Shows the list of parameters for the MSSQLRecoveryManager.exe command.
--backup	Defines the backup operation.
--instance	Specifies the name of the Microsoft SQL Server instance whose databases you want to back up. The following values are possible: value is not specified — for default instance that resides on the standalone server <hostname>\<instance_name> — for named instance that resides on the standalone server <cluster_name> — for default instance that resides on the cluster node <cluster_name>\<instance_name> — for named instance that resides on the cluster node where: <hostname> — name of the host <instance_name> — name of the Microsoft SQL Server instance <cluster_name> — name of the cluster
--d	Specifies the name of the database to back up. This parameter is optional. If you do not use this parameter, Veeam Plug-in will back up all databases of the specified instance. Alternatively, if you want to back up all databases of the instance except for the specified one, you can use the --ed parameter and specify the necessary database as its value.
--ed	Specifies the name of the database that must be excluded from the backup. This parameter is optional. If you do not use this parameter, Veeam Plug-in will back up all databases of the specified instance. Alternatively, if you want to back up a specific database, you can use the --d parameter and specify the necessary database as its value.
--name	Specifies the name for the backup set.
--description	Specifies the description for the backup set.
--type	Specifies the backup type. Possible values: full — full backup diff — differential backup log — log backup
--copy_only	Defines the copy-only backup mode. You can use this parameter to create copy-only full backups or copy-only log backups of Microsoft SQL Server databases. Keep in mind that differential backups cannot use the copy-only full backup as a starting point. To learn more, see this Microsoft article.
--parallelism	Specifies the number of parallel data streams over which you want to back up Microsoft SQL Server data. For each backup stream, a separate VDI Device is started on the Microsoft SQL Server machine.
--retention	Specifies the number of days to keep backups in the backup repository. This parameter is optional. If you do not use this parameter, Veeam Plug-in will not apply the retention policy to the backup.
--check_preferred	[For backup of Always On Availability Groups] Defines that Veeam Plug-in will check whether the availability replica is the preferred replica for backup.
--use_compression	Defines that Veeam Backup & Replication mechanisms of data compression will be applied to the backup. To Veeam Plug-in for Microsoft SQL Server backups, the Optimal (ZSTD) compression level is applied.