Trouble browsing network shares when backing up or restoring

Category: Troubleshooting & error messages
Date: 31 Jul 2009
Product: SQL Backup
SQL Backup sometimes may not show directories when a network share is selected.

SQL Backup implements "impersonation" security on the file browser, passing the credentials of the user running the SQL Backup console to the SQL Server.

When checking that a user has access to read from a network share/directory, a SETUSER command is issued to SQL Server and then have SQL Server query whether the user given can access the location.

There are two possible problems that can occur as a result of this security configuration:

· When you connect to the server from the console using SQL authentication, any file browsing ability to network shares is disabled
· When your credentials can't be verified by the SQL Server computer, SETUSER will fail silently and default to Anonymous access

The easiest workaround in either case would be to copy the network share location from Windows Explorer and paste it directly into the file browser.

To allow console connections from SQL Backup to browse network shares when SQL authentication is used, open the Windows Registry Editor and add a new DWORD value at HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Red Gate\SQL Backup\BackupSettingsGlobal\<instance>\AllowSqlBrowsing and set this value to 1.

SQL Backup's file browser may also fail to work from remote SQL Backup console connections because of a known issue involving a "double hop" of Windows Credentials. For more information, please see http://www.red-gate.com/supportcenter/Content.aspx?p=SQL%20Backup&c=knowledgebase%5cSQL_Backup%5cKB200907000417.htm .

In SQL Backup version 6 and higher, you can disable SQL Backup's impersonation and browse network shares using the service startup account for the SQL Backup Agent service. If the account running this service is a domain account with access to network resources, the shares should become visible. Unlike the first solution, however, each individual user who can use the file browser in this way must be explicitly listed in the registry key. This key is called:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Red Gate\SQL Backup\BackupSettingsGlobal\<instance>\BrowsingUserList

The value is of type REG_MULTI_SZ, and each user who is allowed to browse the network using the SQL Backup Agent's credentials must be listed on its' own line in the Windows NT account format, for instance "DOMAIN\USER".

More information on this method can be found in the help file under Tips>Specifying file paths.