Develop a Backup and Archive Strategy

When planning the backup and the archive operations for each site, it is important to tie both operations, so that together, they ensure always having a recent, valid backup snapshot of the site. When planning backup and archive throughout the hierarchy, it is sometimes beneficial to include multiple sites in one plan. There are a few parts of the backup and archive operations that you can decide to share between sites to increase efficiency.

There are three basic backup and archive strategies that you can implement in an SMS hierarchy:

• Separate backup and separate archive:

  • Back up each site locally without sharing the backup destination between sites.

  • Archive backup snapshots separately.

• Separate backup and shared archive

  • Back up each site locally without sharing the backup destination between sites.

  • Share an archive destination between sites.

• Shared backup and shared archive

  • Share a backup destination between multiple sites.

  • Share an archive destination between multiple sites.

To choose the backup and archive strategy that is most efficient in your organization, you must assess each site and make the following decisions:

• Will the site's backup destination be on the local drive or on a remote drive?

• If the site's backup destination is on a remote drive, will the site share the backup destination with other sites?

• Will the site share the archive destination with other sites?

This section helps you develop a backup and archive strategy for your organization. It explains the advantages and disadvantages of each decision, and how each decision affects each backup and archive strategy.

On This Page

Backup Destination on the Local Drive or on a Remote Drive?
Share a Backup Destination with Multiple Sites?
Share an Archive Destination with Multiple Sites?
Decide Which Backup and Archive Strategy to Implement

Backup Destination on the Local Drive or on a Remote Drive?

When you configure the SMS backup task, you must specify the backup destination, which is where the backup snapshot is stored. You can specify a local drive or a remote drive.

To make this decision, assess the following:

• The quality and speed of your network.

• The size and speed of the site server local hard drive.

• Security requirements.

• The estimated size of the backup snapshot.

Benefits of backing up to a local disk:

• Higher reliability because using a local drive will significantly reduce the risk of a corrupted backup due to network issues.

• Higher security because data is not transmitted over the network.

• Faster backup for two reasons:

  • It is much faster to write to a local drive.

  • When backing up the site database locally, SQL Server does not create a temporary copy of the database.

  Faster backups result in a shorter downtime for the site server.

• Allows you to incorporate data validation checks when archiving the local backup snapshot into a remote location.

Benefits of backing up to a remote disk are:

• Allows sharing of the backup destination.

Share a Backup Destination with Multiple Sites?

The sites that you plan to back up to a remote drive can share a single backup destination. You can configure the backup task of multiple sites to use the same backup destination.

The SMS backup task uses the backup destination that you specify to creates a folder structure that allows multiple sites to safely share the same location as their backup destination. The backup destination is set up so that it:

• Allows several sites to share a single backup destination.

• Prevents one site's backup snapshot from overwriting another site's backup snapshot in case there is an error.

Benefits of shared backup destination:

• Reduced backup costs because multiple sites use a single high quality backup device such as a high capacity, high-speed tape drive.

• Simplified site configuration because multiple sites are configured to use the same backup destination.

• Simplified and less expensive archive of the backup snapshots because you archive only one location.

Share an Archive Destination with Multiple Sites?

Regardless of your plan to share backup destinations or not, you can plan to share archive destinations.

Benefits of shared archive destination:

• Reduces costs of archive because multiple sites use a single archive device.

Decide Which Backup and Archive Strategy to Implement

Each decision on these issues affects each backup and archive strategy differently. The following table illustrates the benefits that you gain, and the benefits that you lose with each decision:

Table 13.2 Benefits of Backup and Archive Strategies

Develop an effective backup and archive strategy that works in your organization to ensure that a recent backup snapshot is always available. When you do this, you simplify the recovery operation.

For More Information

Did you find this information useful? Please send your suggestions and comments about the documentation to smsdocs@microsoft.com.