To use log replay for an automatic roll-forward recovery to a point of failure using the VEA

1. Ensure that you have backed up the transaction logs within SQL Server using the "overwrite existing media" option to create uniquely-named backup files.
2. Close the SQL GUI and all Explorer windows, applications, consoles (except the VEA), or third-party system management tools that may be accessing the volumes. It is also recommended to bring the database offline.
3. From the VEA console, navigate to the system where the database volumes are located.

4. Expand the system node, the Storage Agent node, and the Applications node
5. Right-click SQL and click VSS Restore.
6. Review the Welcome page and click Next.
7. Select the snapshot set XML metadata file to be used for this operation and click Next.

   The XML metadata file contains all required information needed to restore the snapshot set, including the names of the database and transaction logs volumes. Click the appropriate header to sort the list of available files by File Name or Creation Time.

8. On the Select Restore Type panel, do the following and click Next:

   • Click Recovery + Log replay.

   • Enter the full path of each log file, in the order they are to be applied.

     
9. You may receive a message "Some volumes in this component have open handles. Do you want to override these handles and do this restore? Click Yes to proceed." Click No, close any open handles and retry the command.
10. Verify the restore specifications and click Finish.

    After the most recent backup log is replayed, the SQL Server database is closed and left in an operational state. If you took it offline earlier, bring it back online.

11. The restore operation leaves the snapshot volumes snapped back to the production volumes. To ensure that another split-mirror snapshot set is immediately available, use the VSS SQL Snapshot Wizard to create a new snapshot of all the volumes in the database.

To use log replay for an automatic roll-forward recovery to a point of failure using the vxsnap restore command

1. Ensure that you have backed up the transaction logs within SQL Server using the "overwrite existing media" option to create uniquely-named backup files.
2. Close the SQL GUI and all Explorer windows, applications, consoles, or third-party system management tools that may be accessing the volumes. It is also recommended to bring the database offline.
3. Type the command as in the following example:

   vxsnap -x billing_DB.xml restore RestoreType=RECOVERY
      logFiles=c:\backup\tLog1.bak, c:\tLog2.bak

   where billing_DB.xml is the name of the metadata file generated by the vxsnap create command and c:\backup\tLog1.bak, c:\tLog2.baklog1,log2 are the paths to the transaction log backup files. After the most recent backup log is replayed, the SQL Server database is closed and left in an operational state. If you took it offline earlier, bring it back online.

4. The restore operation leaves the snapshot volumes snapped back to the production volumes. To ensure that another split-mirror snapshot set is immediately available, use the vxsnap create command to create a new snapshot of all the volumes in the database.