Microsoft SQL Server

Full, differential and transaction-log SQL Server backups with point-in-time recovery, plus automatic database discovery across instances. On Windows the plugin streams through SQL Server VDI; on Linux it uses a TDS session with FIFO pipes.

Capabilities

• Job level Full runs a full database backup, Differential a differential backup, Incremental a transaction-log backup
• Point-in-time restore (stop_at=, stop_at_mark=, stop_before_mark=)
• Automatic database discovery (database= glob, default *)
• Multi-stream backups (stripes=) and several databases in parallel (parallel_dbs=)

Configure

Add the plugin to a Content on the client you want to protect:

Content {
  Name = "mssql"
  Include {
    Options { Signature = SHA256 }
    Plugin = "mssql: instance=MSSQLSERVER database=* stripes=4 parallel_dbs=2 checksum=yes"
  }
}

All parameters are space-separated key=value pairs. The most used ones:

Parameter	Values	Meaning
instance	instance name	Instance to protect (repeatable); all_instances covers every local instance.
database (or db)	glob (default *)	Databases to back up.
exclude / include	names or globs	Refine the selection.
include_system_dbs	list	System databases to add to the selection.
authtype	windows (default), server, azure_ad, managed_identity	Login type; server uses user= and password= (or passfile=).
stripes	1 to 64	Number of parallel backup streams per database.
parallel_dbs	number	Databases backed up concurrently.
compress	native, zstd, lz4, gzip, none	Compression (default: SQL native plus zstd).
copyonly	yes, incremental, all	Take COPY_ONLY backups that do not disturb an existing backup chain.
checksum	yes/no	WITH CHECKSUM backups.
verify_backup	yes/no	Verify the backup after it is taken.

There is no pit= parameter: point-in-time recovery comes from the transaction-log backups (Incremental level) and is selected at restore time.

Restore

Restore the whole database, or stop at a point in time with restore options such as:

database   = Sales
stop_at    = 2026-04-25 15:30:00
recovery   = yes

stop_at_mark= and stop_before_mark= stop at a marked transaction, point_in_time_tz= sets the time zone used for stop_at (default UTC), and mode=new_db or mode=to_disk restore to a new database or to backup files on disk.

See also: Restore, Instant Recovery & V2V.