In this article, we have addressed some basic aspects which the user should keep in mind while setting retention periods for their Database backups.
Creating and maintaining backups of databases is one of the foremost priorities of any organization. Backups are important for multiple reasons, which include data security, legal requirements, recovery reasons, basic data accessibility etc. So, it is critical to have a proper plan to create database backup plans and database recovery plans. However, there is no set of rules following which a user can create or set up backup retention periods on a SQL Server Database. An organization usually set up their retention period on these set considerations mentioned below:
1. Setup and Determine a Plan for Creating a SQL Server Backup
Users can establish a backup schedule, on a daily, weekly or a monthly basis, depending on the modifications they make to their database.- Incorporate different backups in the plan between full backups, to increase your available recovery points.
- Consider using transaction backup logs, for recovery purposes.
Users can establish a backup schedule, on a daily, weekly or a monthly basis, depending on the modifications they make to their database.2. Backup Storage
- Users can use RAID protected drives to retain data locally in a shorter recovery time.
- Users can also use disks to store data, for recovering the backup on a different server, if SQL Server encounters any critical issue.
- Users can also be prepared to tackle any critical issue by maintaining data on off-site tapes or disk drives to recover the data in any miscellaneous circumstance.
- Balance costs needs versus storage needs, by pruning backups regularly.
- Tape backup can also be a portion of this pruning process.
- Users can create an off-site backup worth a full month, to avoid any backup disaster.
Note: Retention period will include all these aspects of maintaining backups on these off-site devices. One can never predict a data loss disaster, which makes maintaining these off-site data so important.
3. Setup a Recovery Plan
- Determine a recovery point
- Determine a Data storage Location
- Users should determine in advance whether the current software or hardware infrastructure supports the restore or not.
- Determine the database and SQL Server instance that will be restored after running the backup.
- Validating if the restore process is accurate or not.
4. Third Party Solutions
- Use third party software for recovery, fix mdf and backup purposes to meet storage needs, save time and increase security.
- Research and invest in products that have automatic, continuous backups.
- There are organizations which are specialized to manage off-site backups; users can consider them to maintain their backups. This could significantly help in reducing the retention period while creating backups.
5. Important Points to Remember while creating Backups
- In most cases, a lot of time, energy and concern in the backup process, however people tend to forget about the recovery process. So make sure you and your team go through the retention policies thoroughly.
- If you are unsure about the particular requirements of your industry, then talk to your team about the retention and recovery process to clarify any confusion.
- With legal policies changing every day it is important that you stay updated with these changes.
- Inform your team about the changes in retention period and the cost involving the retention software.
Author Introduction:
Victor Simon is a data recovery expert in DataNumen, Inc., which is the world leader in data recovery technologies, including corrupted Access and sql recovery software products. For more information visit https://www.datanumen.com/
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