Microsoft SQL Server Restore Scenarios with the Array

NOTE: The storage array supports the Simple Recovery Model for SQL Server Databases on storage volumes because this provides a good balance between ease of management and granularity of data protection (recovery point).

Database Point-in-time Restore

You can recover an entire database—database and log volumes—by cloning any application-consistent snapshot and mounting the volumes from the clone onto the appropriate database in SQL Server.

Snapshot backups work best for databases that use the simple recovery model. The simple recovery model logs transactions and keeps them until a checkpoint occurs. It then truncates the transaction log up to the checkpoint. Snapshot backups perform a nearly instant full backup of the database, which provides a maintenance free method of managing SQL Server database backup. The SQL Server System databases (Master, Model, MSDB, etc.) are configured to use the simple recovery model by default.