AWS nuances and installation questions

Jackaroo

Hi, newbie to form so excuse my ignorance. 
Currently doing an eval for a major cloud transformation project in AWS:

Am I correct assuming that the product does not require a sql server instance for its own use? 

Does it use compact edition db and/or where is the data and historical information captured and stored? 

If I need to move the hosting management instance or if it inadvertently gets trashed, what happens to the historical SQL Backup information stored within the proprietary Redgate product db(?) and can I recover this? 

I'm intending on installing the EC2 management server within the same VPC as the other EC2 and RDS DB instances with valid IAM and Security Group credentials so I'm not expecting any connection issues but has anyone experienced in nuances with an AWS (EC2 or RDS SQL Server) cloud installation that I should be aware of for my eval? 

Apologies for so many questions!  TIA.

squigley

Good Afternoon,

Thanks for you inquiry with the Redgate SQL Backup tool.

You can install the SQL Backup GUI on as many Windows Servers as you like, but the SQL Backup Server Components must be installed to a SQL Server Instance and licensed.

The data regarding the jobs history is stored in the msdb database where the SQL Backup Server Components are installed. This is then trickled down to a data store called data.sdf that the SQL Backup GUI then reads and displays.

Assuming by host management instance you mean where the SQL Backup GUI is installed to, then it's simply a matter of re-installing the GUI and reconnecting to the instance that has the SQL Backup Server Components.

This should be possible to setup in EC2 as long as the account running the SQL Backup Agent Windows Service has access to their respective EC2 instances. I'm afraid that SQL Backup does not support AWS RDS. You can back up to Amazon Bucket storage if that helps at all, see https://documentation.red-gate.com/sbu/worked-examples/backing-up-to-cloud-storage-settings for more information, but we have no plans to extend this to RDS.

Please let me know if you have any other questions or concerns.

Thanks!

Jackaroo

Thanks @Squigley.  Sums it up perfectly. 

The correlation between the product's sdf and msdb had me curious but good to know the detail is all stored in msdb for reference. 

Part of my evaluation requires destructive and failover tests on the Always On instances.  I've reviewed the documentation for this and found it very precise. 

So far it ticks all the boxes apart from RDS - but understandable given the limitations in this space and not a concern for us as we use dedicated snapshot routines for this. 

Thanks again!