1120 - How to restore Microsoft SQL Server databases

The Enterprise Server Edition (ESE) Agent can restore a Microsoft SQL Server database into an active SQL Server instance, with the required metadata intact, by making use of Volume Shadow Copy (VSS).

To select the desired SQL instance\database to restore:

1. Open the ESE Agent.

2. Open the Restore tab.

3. Select the desired restore point from the drop-down list (the default is the last backup).

4. Click on the SQL button to the left to expand the selection tree.

5. Select the instance/database to restore by using Right-click > Include. Objects selected for restore will turn green and objects excluded from the restore will turn red.

Note: Selecting an instance will also select all the databases in that instance. You can then exclude databases/instances by using Right-click > Exclude.

6. Once you have made your selection, you can restore directly back to your active SQL Server by simply clicking Restore. The ESE Agent will present a warning that the restore will overwrite the existing database; select Overwrite to proceed. Once the restore is complete, you can refresh the SQL instance and the restored database will be visible.

To restore without overwriting the live database, you can recover the corresponding LDF and MDF files for that database using file-level recovery, then mount these files as a "new" database. To do this, in the Restore tab, change from the SQL view to the Computer view on the left. Expand the relevant drive and folders until you see the LDF/MDF files, then right-click to include them using the context menu. You can now recover.

Alternatively, you can use InstantData to recover without overwriting.

Note:

• The SQL tab is only available in ESE if a running SQL VSS Writer Service is detected on the machine.
• When completing a restore through ESE, you can only restore one tab in a single restore, so you cannot make restore selections in another tab alongside the SQL restore.
• The master database can only be restored from the Files and Folders view.