Backup Strategies

Applies To: System Center Essentials 2010

This topic describes strategies you can use to establish appropriate backup guidelines. The strategies are:

• Complete database backups

• Incremental database backups

• Transition log backups

• Recommended backup schedule

Complete and Incremental Database Backups

You must ensure that database backups are as recent and complete as possible. This section provides information to help you decide how to incorporate both complete and incremental database backups into the overall databases backup plan.

Complete Database Backups

A complete database backup captures the entire database, including all entries in the transaction log, and excluding any unallocated extents in the files. Pages are read directly from disk to increase the speed of the operation.

During a restore operation, you can re-create a database from its backup by restoring the database’s backup. The restore process overwrites the existing database or creates the database if it does not exist. The restored database will match the state of the database at the time the backup completed, minus any uncommitted transactions. Uncommitted transactions are rolled back when the database is restored.

A complete database backup uses more storage space per backup than transaction log and incremental database backups. Consequently, complete database backups take longer and therefore are typically created less frequently than incremental database or transaction log backups.

Incremental Database Backups

An incremental (differential) database backup records only the data that has changed since the last incremental database backup. You can make frequent incremental backups of a database because incremental database backups are smaller and faster than complete database backups. Making frequent incremental backups decreases your risk of losing data.

During a restore operation, you can use incremental database backups to restore the database to the point at which the incremental database backup was completed.

Transaction Log Backups

The transaction log is a serial record of all the transactions that have been performed against the database since the transaction log was last backed up.

During a restore operation, you can use transaction log backups to restore the database to a specific point in time (for example, prior to entering unwanted data), or to the point of failure. When restoring a transaction log backup, Microsoft SQL Server rolls forward all changes recorded in the transaction log. When SQL Server reaches the end of the transaction log, the state of the database is exactly as it was at the time the backup operation started. If the database is recovered, SQL Server then rolls back all transactions that were incomplete when the backup operation started.

Recommended Backup Schedule

You can determine how often and when to run backups, but as a rule, perform database backups according to your company’s backup policy. The table below suggests a schedule for regular backups of your Essentials 2010 components and related items. This suggested schedule is specific to your Essentials 2010 environment and is meant to complement other regularly scheduled backups in your environment.

You should schedule backup jobs at a time that does not conflict with the schedule of the Essentials 2010 grooming tasks. When the Essentials 2010 grooming jobs run, they both read from and write to the database. Backing up the database at the same time might cause failures in either the backup or the grooming job, or both.

At a minimum, perform an incremental backup of the SystemCenterEssentials database daily and a complete backup of the OperationsManagerDW database weekly. The master and msdb databases should be backed up any time a change occurs that affects either database, but you should back them up at least monthly.