For Windows credentials authentication, you must set up your credential before installing the plug-ins.
For SQL Server instance authentication, you must add the credential after installing the plug-ins.
For gMSA authentication, you must setup gMSA while registering the host with SnapCenter in the Add Host or Modify Host page to enable and use the gMSA.
If the host is added with gMSA and if the gMSA has login and system admin privileges, the gMSA will be used to connect to the SQL instance.

Steps

In the left navigation pane, select Resources, and then select the appropriate plug-in from the list.
In the Resources page, select Database ,or Instance, or Availability Group from the View drop-down list.
1. Select the database, or instance, or availability group that you want to back up.
  
  When you take a backup of an instance, the information about the last backup status or the timestamp of that instance will not be available in the resources page.
  
  In the topology view, you cannot differentiate whether the backup status, timestamp, or backup is for an instance or a database.
In the Resources page, select the custom name format for Snapshot copy check box, and then enter a custom name format that you want to use for the Snapshot copy name.

For example, customtext_policy_hostname or resource_hostname. By default, a timestamp is appended to the Snapshot copy name.
In the Policies page, perform the following tasks:
1. In the Policies section, select one or more policies from the drop-down list.
  
  You can create a policy by selecting to start the policy wizard.
  
  In the Configure schedules for selected policies section, the selected policies are listed.
2. Select in the Configure Schedules column for the policy for which you want to configure a schedule.
3. In the Add schedules for policy policy_name dialog box, configure the schedule, and then select OK.
  
  Here policy_name is the name of the policy that you have selected.
  
  The configured schedules are listed in the Applied Schedules column.
4. Select the Use Microsoft SQL Server scheduler, and then select the scheduler instance from the Scheduler Instance drop-down list that is associated with the scheduling policy.
In the Verification page, perform the following steps:
1. Select the verification server from the Verification server drop-down list.
  
  You can select multiple verification servers (local host or remote host).
  
  The verification server version should be equal or above the version of the edition of the SQL server that is hosting the primary database.
2. Select Load secondary locators to verify backups on secondary to verify your backups on secondary storage system.
3. Select the policy for which you want to configure your verification schedule, and then select .
4. In the Add Verification Schedules policy_name dialog box, perform the following actions:
  
  If you want to… Do this…
  
  Run verification after backup
  
  Select Run Verification after Backup.
  
  Schedule a verification
  
  Select Run scheduled verification.
  
  If the verification server does not have a storage connection, the verification operation fails with error: Failed to mount disk.
5. Select OK.
  
  The configured schedules are listed in the Applied Schedules column.
In the Notification page, from the Email preference drop-down list, select the scenarios in which you want to send the emails.

You must also specify the sender and receiver email addresses, and the subject of the email. If you want to attach the report of the operation performed on the resource group, select Attach Job Report.

For email notification, you must have specified the SMTP server details either using the GUI or PowerShell command Set-SmSmtpServer.
Review the summary, and then select Finish.

The database topology page is displayed.
Select Back up Now.
In the Backup page, perform the following steps:
1. If you have applied multiple policies to the resource, from the Policy drop-down list, select the policy that you want to use for backup.
  
  If the policy selected for the on-demand backup is associated with a backup schedule, the on-demand backups will be retained based on the retention settings specified for the schedule type.
2. Select Verify after backup to verify your backup.
3. Select Backup.
  
  You should not rename the backup job created in Windows scheduler or SQL Server agent.
  
  If the policy selected for the on-demand backup is associated with a backup schedule, the on-demand backups will be retained based on the retention settings specified for the schedule type.
  
  An implicit resource group is created. You can view this by selecting respective user or group from the User Access page. The implicit resource group type is “Resource”.
Monitor the operation progress by selecting Monitor > Jobs.

If you want to…	Do this…
Run verification after backup	Select Run Verification after Backup.
Schedule a verification	Select Run scheduled verification.

After you finish

In MetroCluster configurations, SnapCenter might not be able to detect a protection relationship after a failover.
If you are backing up application data on VMDKs and the Java heap size for the SnapCenter Plug-in for VMware vSphere is not large enough, the backup might fail. To increase the Java heap size, locate the script file /opt/netapp/init_scripts/scvservice. In that script, the do_start method command starts the SnapCenter VMware plug-in service. Update that command to the following: Java -jar -Xmx8192M -Xms4096M.

Related information

Create backup policies for SQL Server databases

Back up resources using PowerShell cmdlets