Microsoft SQL Server support

SQL Backup Pro supports the following versions of Microsoft SQL Server:

• SQL Server 2014 (32-bit and 64-bit)
• SQL Server 2012 (32-bit and 64-bit)
• SQL Server 2008 R2 (32-bit and 64-bit)
• SQL Server 2008 (32-bit and 64-bit) - Service Pack 1 is supported but not required.
• SQL Server 2005 (32-bit and 64-bit) - Service Packs 1, 2 and 3 are supported but not required.
• SQL Server 2000 (32-bit and 64-bit) - Service Pack 3a or later is required.

The following editions of each version are supported:

• Business Intelligence Edition (SQL Server 2012 only)
• Developer Edition
• Enterprise Edition
• Standard Edition
• Web Edition
• Workgroup Edition

SQL Backup Pro provides limited support for SQL Server Express Edition; the SQL Backup Pro graphical user interface does not support scheduled backup jobs, scheduled restore jobs or log shipping with this edition.

Microsoft Windows support

SQL Backup Pro supports the following Microsoft Windows operating systems:

• Windows 8
• Windows Server 2012 R2
• Windows Server 2012
• Windows 7
• Windows Vista Service Packs 1 and 2
• Windows Server 2008 R2
• Windows Server 2008 Service Packs 1 and 2 (Standard Edition and Windows Server 2008 Enterprise Edition)
• Windows XP Professional Service Packs 1, 2 and 3
• Windows Server 2003 Standard Edition and Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition:For 32-bit versions of Windows, Service Pack 1 and Service Pack 2 are supported but not required.For 64-bit versions of Windows, Service Pack 1 is required. Service Pack 2 is supported but not required.
• Windows 2000 Professional Service Pack 4
• Windows 2000 Server Service Pack 4
• Windows 2000 Advanced Server Service Pack 4

The option to copy backups to hosted storage (SQL Backup Pro 7.3 and later) is not supported on Windows 2000 running on 32-bit or 64-bit systems.

Itanium support

SQL Backup Pro v7.7 is the last general release to support the Itanium platform. Formal support for Itanium ended on July 8th, 2015. For further details of historic support for Itanium, see the Requirements for SQL Backup Pro v6.

Operating system requirements

• 512MB RAM
• 100MB hard disk space

.NET framework requirements

The graphical user interface requires Microsoft .NET version 2, 3.0 or 3.5.

The option to copy backups to hosted storage (SQL Backup Pro 7.3 and later) requires Microsoft .NET framework version 3.5.

Platform support for x86 64-bit and x86 32-bit

If you run 32-bit and 64-bit machines, note these platform support details:

• The SQL Backup Pro GUI is a .NET 2.0 Windows Forms application, compiled to run in 32-bit mode only. There should be no performance degradation caused by this limitation on x86 64-bit machines.
• The SQL Backup Agent service is a native 32-bit process. It cannot be run in 64-bit mode. This should not degrade performance on an x86 64-bit machine.
• SQL Backup Pro's extended stored procedures are available in 32-bit and 64-bit versions. Use the 32-bit versions with 32-bit versions of SQL Server, the 64-bit versions with 64-bit versions of SQL Server.
• SQL Backup Pro's command line tools are all 32-bit processes. They cannot be run in 64-bit mode. This should not degrade performance on an x86 64-bit machine.

Technical notes

• SQL Backup Pro does not support BACKUP TO URL and RESTORE FROM URL introduced in SQL Server 2012 SP1 cumulative update 2. You can use WITH COPYTO_HOSTED to upload a copy of a backup to a SQL Backup Pro Hosted Storage account (SQL Backup Pro 7.3 and later). For more information, see Backing up to hosted storage.
• SQL Backup Pro does not support cumulative backups in a single file.
• SQL Backup Pro can be installed on SQL Server instances included in AlwaysOn Availability Groups (introduced in SQL Server 2012), but does not support the features of Availability Groups. SQL Backup Pro must be installed on each SQL Server instance separately; you cannot use the cluster installation. In the event of a failover, any scheduled jobs from the failed server must be created manually on the new primary server.
• SQL Backup Pro fully supports FILESTREAM storage introduced in SQL Server 2008.
• To restore from a backup file that was created with SQL Backup 6 or later to a SQL Server instance running SQL Backup 5, you must first convert the backup file.