About the Agent for Microsoft SQL Server

Last published : Apr 02, 2026
The Agent for Microsoft SQL Server (SQL Agent) enables network administrators to perform backup and restore operations on installations of SQL that are connected to a network. SQL database backups can be integrated with network backups without separate administration or dedicated hardware.
The SQL Agent provides support for the following:
  • Database, transaction log, and differential backups, as well as database recovery and replacement.
  • An automated restore of the system databases.
  • Simplified Disaster Recovery, which automates the disaster recovery process of SQL Servers.
  • Restores of SQL databases to alternate locations.
  • Hot backup copies of SQL databases during backup operations. This feature enables you to direct a copy of the actual data streams being sent to media by a SQL database to a local directory for later use.
  • Backups of multiple instances.
  • Standby database. If the primary SQL Server fails, or is shut down for maintenance, another database called a standby database can be brought online.
  • Database Consistency Checks (DBCC) for each backup and restore job, including a fast database consistency check of only the physical consistency of the database.
  • Full, bulk-logged, and simple recovery models. With the simple recovery model, copies of the transactions are not stored in the log file, which prevents transaction log backups from being run. Therefore, you can recover the database to the point of the last backup, but you cannot restore the database to the point of failure or to a specific point in time.
  • Restores of transaction logs to a specific point in time or to a named transaction when log marks are used.
  • Database snapshots.
  • Maintenance replication settings during redirected restores.
  • A Verify Only option for a restore job that determines both the validity of the SQL data on the media and the ability of the destination SQL database to accept this data before the database is deleted or overwritten during a restore job.
  • Back up with checksum generation. This option is used as a redundancy check and works with the Verify Only option on a restore job.
  • Continuation of restore jobs when errors are detected. This feature enables you to restore as much data as possible from a corrupt database backup.
  • Copy-only one-time backups, which enable you to copy a database without affecting the full-differential-log restore sequence.
  • In SQL Server 2008 or later editions that support compression, you can use SQL software compression for backup jobs.
More Information
About installing the SQL Agent