What steps can you take to create a backup and recovery plan?

1 Assess your risks and requirements

The first step is to identify and evaluate the potential risks and threats that could affect your database, such as hardware failure, power outage, natural disaster, cyberattack, or human error. You also need to determine your recovery objectives, such as how much data you can afford to lose (recovery point objective, or RPO) and how fast you need to restore your data (recovery time objective, or RTO). These factors will help you decide what type of backup and recovery methods and tools you need, how often you need to perform backups, and where you need to store your backups.

2 Choose your backup methods and tools

The next step is to select the backup methods and tools that suit your database and your recovery objectives. There are different types of backup methods, such as full, incremental, differential, or transaction log backups, that vary in the amount of data they capture and the time they take to complete. You also need to choose the backup tools that are compatible with your database system and platform, such as native tools, third-party tools, or cloud-based tools. You should also consider the backup formats, compression, encryption, and verification options that affect the backup size, security, and integrity.

3 Define your backup schedule and retention policy

The third step is to define your backup schedule and retention policy that specify when, how often, and how long you need to perform and keep your backups. Your backup schedule and retention policy should balance your recovery objectives, your available resources, and your compliance requirements. You should also consider the frequency and volume of changes in your data, the impact of backup operations on your database performance, and the storage space and costs of your backups. You should also test your backup schedule and retention policy regularly to ensure that they meet your expectations and needs.

4 Implement your backup storage and location strategy

The fourth step is to implement your backup storage and location strategy that determines where and how you store your backups. You should choose a backup storage and location strategy that provides sufficient capacity, availability, security, and accessibility for your backups. You should also consider the advantages and disadvantages of different backup storage and location options, such as local, remote, or cloud-based storage, and the best practices for backup media management, such as labeling, rotation, or disposal. You should also ensure that your backup storage and location strategy complies with your data protection and privacy regulations.

5 Establish your recovery procedures and roles

The fifth step is to establish your recovery procedures and roles that define how and who will restore your data in case of a disaster, error, or attack. You should document your recovery procedures and roles clearly and comprehensively, and communicate them to your relevant stakeholders, such as database administrators, developers, or users. You should also include the steps and tools for recovery validation, verification, and testing, as well as the contingency plans for different scenarios and situations. You should also train and educate your recovery team and users on how to follow your recovery procedures and roles.

6 Monitor and review your backup and recovery plan

The sixth and final step is to monitor and review your backup and recovery plan regularly and continuously, and update it as needed. You should use the appropriate tools and metrics to monitor and measure the performance, effectiveness, and efficiency of your backup and recovery plan, such as backup completion, success, and failure rates, backup size and duration, recovery time and data loss, and backup and recovery costs. You should also review and evaluate your backup and recovery plan periodically and systematically, and identify and address any issues, gaps, or opportunities for improvement.

7 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?