As a database administrator, you know how important it is to have a reliable and secure backup strategy for your data. But what are the best practices and tools to achieve that? In this article, we'll explore some of the most common and effective database backup methods, and how to choose the right one for your needs.
A full backup is the simplest and most comprehensive way to backup your entire database. It copies all the data files, logs, and metadata to a separate location, where you can restore them in case of a disaster. Full backups are easy to perform and restore, but they also take more time, space, and resources than other methods. You should schedule full backups regularly, depending on the size and activity of your database, and store them in a secure and accessible location.
Data protection is one of the biggest concern in today's IT industry as malware attacks and suspicious intrusions are prolifering. Full backup is very crucial to restore the production databases when necessary. Institutions should invest in Enterprise Backup and Recovery Solution as they provide great flexibility, management and security. Full backups should be carefully scheduled as it will take long time to complete for large database size. It is crucial to plan out the scope of recoverability in case of any data corruption, failure or natural disaster such as having redundant copies on different medias and locations.
In addition to using incremental backups we also use scripts to ensure backups are performed consistently and without human error.
The best database backup strategy is one that does not require human intervention to operate. Automated, scheduled backups eliminate human errors and ensure the computer system runs efficiently. Human intervention is required for checking logs and resource utilization and resolving exceptions. A combination of a weekly full backup, daily incremental backup may be useful if one is constrained in terms of space and time. One can setup a remote SQL server and backup all the databases to that server using some FTP Backup software. The Offsite Backup may serve as a restore server as well. To make sure the backups can be restored fully and the application system will work after a restore.
Es una buena práctica realizar regularmente un fullbackup de la base de datos, pero eso no alcanza para minimizar la pérdida de información. Particularmente además de realizar está tarea regularmente, se deben de tener espejado los logs transaccionales y realizar diariamente un backup de estos logs, a fin de minimizar la pérdida de información y poder recuperar hasta la última transacción previo al desastre.
Each production database should have a strong backup strategy. Backup's can be scheduled in a shared location or tape instead of a local mount point. It helps to easily access and secure backup files. We need to enable block change tracking to minimize database backup time and space. so that we can take backup of block changes from the last backup. It can be restored and recovered on any new server or existing server to bring the database live when we face disaster.
An incremental backup is a more efficient and faster way to backup your database, as it only copies the data that has changed since the last backup. This reduces the amount of storage and bandwidth required, and allows you to perform backups more frequently. However, incremental backups are more complex and risky to restore, as they depend on the previous backups and the transaction log. You should use incremental backups in combination with full backups, and verify their integrity and consistency.
Incremental backups are one of the flexible and good options for huge databases to secure from disaster. With this backup method we need to keep all the backup files in place because incremental backup will be performed based on the last backup. If the last backup is not in place or it's cleared. It will perform full backup which means it will backup all the blocks/datafiles. Also all backup files need to perform restore or recover the database. Like, Full backup files + incremental backup files to bring the database to a certain point time.
En lo posible, según storage y tama?o de la base de datos, prefiero utilizar fullbackup, pero entiendo que no siempre es posible y en caso de grandes base de datos, se debería de tener una estrategia combinada. Pero como siempre, regularmente un fullbackup backup es recomendado.
If the tables has timestamp column , then it will be easy to do incremental backups based on the timestamp , Also it will be consistent and accurate.
A differential backup is similar to an incremental backup, but it copies the data that has changed since the last full backup, not the last incremental backup. This means that differential backups are larger and slower than incremental backups, but they are easier and faster to restore, as they only need the last full backup and the last differential backup. You should use differential backups when you have a large database with moderate changes, and when you want to minimize the restore time.
Personalmente no he utilizado este método, entiendo que puede ser efectivo y requiere menos tiempo de recuperacion. No he tenido la necesidad de utilizar este método
It's another incremental backup strategy which can be used for huge environments. Differential backup method will backup all the block changes on the database from the last full backup. As far as I know, most production databases use incremental backup methods instead of differential backup.
This another way of ensuring your data is recoverable. Don't agree with the 'one strategy fits all' so when planning your disaster revovery for data, make use of the strategy that better fits your needs.
The frequency of incremental backups can be adjusted depending on the amount of data that changes frequently. For example, if you have a database that changes very little, you may only need to perform incremental backups once a week. However, if you have a database that changes frequently, you may need to perform incremental backups daily or even hourly.
A log backup is a special type of backup that only copies the transaction log of your database. The transaction log records all the changes that occur in your database, and is essential for ensuring its consistency and recoverability. Log backups are very small and quick to perform, and they allow you to restore your database to a specific point in time. However, log backups are only applicable to databases that use the full or bulk-logged recovery model, and they require regular full or differential backups to be effective.
Archive logs or transactional logs play a crucial role in database restore and recover scenarios. Based on database criticality, we should enable repeated backup policy for log backups to secure from data loss. It will help to bring the database to a certain SCN number / time / log sequence. so that we can ensure the database consistency without any data loss.
Siempre lo utilizo en bases de datos con gran actividad. Recomiendo tener un sistema de logs archivados y duplicados. Las veces que he sufrido catástrofes, fue la forma de minimizar al máximo la pérdida de información. Sobre todo en oltp databases
Depending on the type and platform of your database, you can use different tools to perform and manage your backups. Some of the most popular and widely used tools are:
- SQL Server Management Studio : a graphical interface that allows you to perform and schedule backups for SQL Server databases, as well as restore them and monitor their status.
- pg_dump and pg_restore : command-line utilities that allow you to backup and restore PostgreSQL databases, either as a single file or as a directory of files.
- mysqldump and mysql : command-line utilities that allow you to backup and restore MySQL databases, either as a single file or as a set of SQL statements.
- mongodump and mongorestore : command-line utilities that allow you to backup and restore MongoDB databases, either as a binary dump or as a JSON or BSON export.
If SQL Server is concerned, Ola Hallengren’s backup scripts are an excellent and widely-used set of SQL Server maintenance scripts designed to streamline and enhance database backup processes. They are highly customisable, support various compression algorithms (using 3rd party tools) and offer error handling features for consistent backups
Backup tools may vary based on databases platform. Also, many third party tools are in the market to perform backup / restore / recover scenarios. Exp/imp and expdp/impdp: command-line utilities that allow you to backup tables,users, tablespace. RMAN: command-line utilities that allow you to backup and restore Oracle databases also can perform datafile/tablespace
Menos Mongo, las demás herramientas las utilizo. El caso de SQL server, queda el scheduler y adicionalmente género tranlogs para justamente tener más data para recuperar. En MySQL existe también herramienta que permiten archivar logs de transacciones, lo entiendo como algo fundamental. Adicionalmente estoy manejando un galera clúster y realmente los backups no he tenido que utilizarlos, y me he tenido que recuperar de desastres, pero con el clúster es bastante más sencillo.
Practicing the restoration process is just as important as having a backup strategy. There’s nothing worse than having inaccessible data in the middle of a crisis. Take the opportunity to develop or test your restoration process by creating or refreshing staging/development environments. This will strengthen your data governance process.
When selecting the right backup strategy for your database, it’s important to consider factors such as the size and complexity of your database, the frequency and volume of changes, the availability and performance requirements, the storage and bandwidth restrictions of your backup location, and the recovery objectives and scenarios. Generally, you should seek a balance between backup and restore time, backup size and frequency, and backup reliability and security. A common approach is to do a full backup once a week, a differential backup once a day, and a log backup every hour. Nevertheless, you should test your strategy and adjust it to meet your individual needs and goals.
Backing up SQL Server is different than backing up your Application or web server or load balancer servers. Databases have a few really big files, and you don’t want to back up the file itself, and the file is constantly changing 24/7. Rather than file-level backups, you have 3 common choices: server-level snapshot backups, native full SQL Server backups, and transaction log backups or different third part tool backups. Microsoft SQL Server allows three basic types of SQL Server backup: Full backup Weekly once if the DB's size bigger one ,if the DB's size is small . we can plan Daily also. Differential backup -- Daily for the incremental changes where the Full backup complete. Transaction log backup. --Every day 15 mins to recovery
Most DB Administrators and organisations have very good backup strategies.. But one thing that people rarely do is actually test their backups by simulating a disaster so as to ascertain the following:- 1. Check the integrity of backups. 2. How long will it take to access a backup and use it in the recovery 3. How long will the overall recover from backup take(using all the different strategies you have - point in time, full) 3. Test this times with your SLAs (you might find you spend a long time recovering)
Are not sure how to begin your Database Backup Strategy? You could start answering the following questions: - What would happen if I lost the DB information for 1 hour, 6 hours, 1 day... 1 week. This will help you to understand the speed change of your data and choose the right type of backup that you need. - What is the size of each backup? Compare the size of full, differential, and transaction log backups. Sometimes differential backups grow over time and become greater than full backup size. - How long take to restore your database at a point in time? Determine network speed, IOPS, and size of every backup needed to restore your database at a specific time.
The deduplication should be used while deciding a backup strategy. It will reduce the size of backup and time it takes. It is kind of an incremental backup. It backs up only new data and de-duplicates older data. Older data remains at backup destination in some restorable form.
In this discussion, we should at least consider a DR system. This can be full or partial system. Same platform or different platform. It can be real-time or delayed. It all comes down to how critical is your data and how much of a budget do you have to satisfy the requirements. This is not a DBA decision, but rather one in collaboration with the stake holders.