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SQL Server Database

Backup and Restore Planning

By Bryan Oliver

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Copyright 2009-2012 by AppAssure Software, Inc.

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

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CONTENTS
GENERAL ISSUES ....................................................................................................................................................5

What is a backup? ..............................................................................................................................................5

Why backup? ......................................................................................................................................................5

Backup and Recovery Planning ........................................................................................................................6

Server Data Classification ..................................................................................................................................6

What should you be backing up? ....................................................................................................................6

When should backups occur? ...........................................................................................................................6

Where should backups be stored? ..................................................................................................................7

Testing backups? ................................................................................................................................................7

Who should be responsible for backups?.......................................................................................................7

SERVER SPECIFICS ..................................................................................................................................................8

Server Classification ...........................................................................................................................................8

Server High Availability Requirements ............................................................................................................8

Server Backup Schedule ....................................................................................................................................8

SQL SERVER SPECIFICS ..........................................................................................................................................9

System Databases ..............................................................................................................................................9

Master ..............................................................................................................................................................9

MSDB ...............................................................................................................................................................9

Distribution .....................................................................................................................................................9

Model ...............................................................................................................................................................9

User Databases ...................................................................................................................................................9

Backup Reports................................................................................................................................................ 10

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SQL SERVER BACKUP PLANNING WORK SHEET............................................................................................. 11

Server Profile .................................................................................................................................................... 11

Server Classification ........................................................................................................................................ 11

Server High Availability Requirements ......................................................................................................... 11

Server Backup Schedules ............................................................................................................................... 12

SQL Server Specific ......................................................................................................................................... 12

SQL Server High Availability Requirements ................................................................................................. 12

SQL SERVER BACKUP REQUIREMENTS ............................................................................................................ 13

System Database ............................................................................................................................................. 13

User Databases ................................................................................................................................................ 13

Database High Availability Requirements.................................................................................................... 13

Database Backup Requirements ................................................................................................................... 13

SQL SERVER RESTORE PLANNING WORK SHEET ........................................................................................... 14

Server Restore.................................................................................................................................................. 14

SQL Server Restore.......................................................................................................................................... 14

SQL Server Database Restore ........................................................................................................................ 14

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GENERAL ISSUES

What is a backup?
In simple terms a backup is a copy of the data contained within a system. For a DBA, a backup can consist of
either a single file or multiple files for one database to the entire server. These files can be classified into three
types: a full backup, a partial or differential backup, and finally, a transaction log backup. By utilizing all three
types of backups, the amount of data that needs to be backed up at specific times and the overhead placed
upon the hardware to complete the backups at critical times is reduced.

A Typical Backup Scenario

Full Backup at 00:00 Differential Backup at 12:00
Log Backup at 02:00 Log Backup at 14:00
Log Backup at 04:00 Log Backup at 16:00
Differential Backup at 06:00 Differential Backup at 18:00
Log Backup at 08:00 Log Backup at 20:00
Log Backup at 10:00 Log Backup at 22:00

The problem with this Typical Backup Scenario is that restoring a database is a time consuming process. For
Example: To restore the database to the actual state it was at 16:00, you have to restore the Full Backup, the
Differential at 12:00, and the Log at 14:00 and 16:00.

Why backup?
Although people differ, computers do fail and they arent perfect yet. The main reason to backup is to protect
against the disruption of business from a variety of scenarios including disasters:

hurricanes, a building fire, a flood or terrorist event

hardware failures including disk drives, motherboards and CPUs
software malfunctions leading to file/data corruption
users that make mistakes, or undertake fraudulent or malicious activity

Companies with lost data incur extensive costs due to a combination of factors including loss of business, low
productivity, legal action, and the cost of recreating data. In 2002, a study from OnTrack, a company that
provides data recovery services, showed that the cost of recreating just 20 MB of data can be extensive:

Data type Time to recreate 20 MB Cost

Sales and marketing 19 days $17,000
Accounting 21 days $19,000
Engineering 42 days $98,000

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Critical data loss can result in business collapse. A Study from the National Archives and Records Administration
shave shown that 80% of companies without wellconceived data protection and recovery strategies go out of
business within two years of a major disaster.

Backup and Recovery Planning

Whether a business is small, medium or large business, it must have a wellwritten plan for backing up the
servers. Planning a backup strategy upfront and documenting not only the backup process but also the restore
process, will save you a ton of time in the end. Because of its value to the company and the sensitive nature of it,
the classification of data must be carefully considered in the planning stage. Based upon these classifications, the
backup and restore plan will need to be tested and adjusted. While planning stage, data should be ranked
according to sensitivity and value to the business.

Server Data Classification

Sensitivity of Data Held Least 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Highest

Value to Business of Data Held Least 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Highest

With data that is highly valuable to a company, plans must include an increased backup frequency due to the
nature of the costs incurred while recapturing data in case of a to disaster. Recoverability plans must also
consider the availability requirements of this data.

With highly sensitive data, plans must include encryption of backups, especially when this data is stored offsite.

What should you be backing up?

With a SQL Server, DBAs should also be concerned with the OS, the applications that the server runs and finally
the databases. In other words, the entire server needs a backup and recovery plan. User databases are critical to
backup plan, but system databases that contain significant information like Users, SQL Jobs and other system
functionality, must also be taken into account.

When should backups occur?

When planning your backup strategy, each server and each database needs to be assessed on the six criteria
below. Based upon this assessment, and agreement between the business owners of the database, a backup
strategy should be implemented to reduce the liabilities caused by the loss of a server or database. For example
a data warehouse that is highly valued by the business, but has no rekey cost and requires high availability,
might only require a daily backup. While an accounting system with a high rekey cost and high frequency of
changes may require frequent backups, every 15 minutes or so.

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Six Criteria for Assessing Backup Needs

Value to Business of the DB Least 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Highest

Ability to Rekey the data into DB Least 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Highest

Cost to Rekey the data into DB Least 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Highest

Frequency of changes to the DB Least 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Highest

Amount of data changed per hr Least 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Highest

Cost to Restore the DB Least 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Highest

Where should backups be stored?

All backups should be eventually stored in a offsite location. You dont want to be like the system administrator
at a Paris Bank who ran back into a building on fire in 1996, because they didnt have offsite copies of their tape
backups. In todays world, files can be transferred to storage sites via the internet. Companies can collect backup
media and tapes or disk drives and store them at secure locations or transfer it to an another data centre within
the company. Strategically backups should either go directly to another device like a SAN, iSCSI, NAS or file
server and from there backups should be archived to tape or removable disk drives so they can be sent to an
offsite storage centre.

Testing backups?
Test restores should occur on a regular basis, including the entire system as well as individual databases. The
only way to guarantee the integrity of a backup is to actually restore it followed by a DBCC check. There should
always bea last complete backup set onsite so that immediate restores can be undertaken.

Who should be responsible for backups?

Ultimately the IT manager is responsible for backups, but you as the DBA should be taking responsibility for the
backups of the SQL Servers and the databases contained within these servers. You should make sure the all
documentation is complete and thoroughly tested. Good DBAs know how long it takes to backup the system and
each database; exceptional ones know how long it takes to restore the system and each of the databases.

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SERVER SPECIFICS
The operating system and applications on the server need to be backed up at scheduled intervals and after any
system changes. If you are applying service packs and updates regularly, than regular backups should be
occurring along with these changes. When making changes to the underlying system user accounts, policies and
installing third party products you should be undertaking at least an incremental backup so that these changes
can be restored easily in the event of the server needing to be restored.

Server Classification
Value of the Server to Operations Least 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Highest

Cost to Business for Lost Time Least 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Highest

Server Availability Least 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Highest

Changes to OS Least 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Highest

Changes to Applications Least 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Highest

Server High Availability Requirements

Servers scored in the 10s should be clustered for hardware and OS redundancy along with a possible warm
standby server either using a Physical or Virtual Server at another location.

Server Backup Schedule

Hourly incremental backup when file additions or updates occur frequently.

Daily incremental backups to capture file additions and updates that have occurred during the day. If
using hourly incremental backups consider differential backups to roll up all the changes that have
occurred during the day.

Weekly this will be either a full or differential backup depending on the number of changes occurring to
the non sql server database files.

Monthly and Yearly should always be a full backup of the entire system. Major Changes should always
be a full backup of the entire system.

Major Changes should always be a full backup of the entire system.

Application Changes should be either a full backup or differential backup.

Operating System Changes should be either a full backup or differential backup.

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SQL SERVER SPECIFICS

System Databases
All system databases, excluding tempdb and resource, should be backed up on a strict schedule. In addition, they
should be backed up after certain events to maintain the integrity of the server and enable recovery from a
disaster.

Master
The master database should be backed up every day, without fail, and after any event that alters the SQL Server.
These events include creating, altering or deleting a database, changing a data or log file of a user database,
creating, altering or deleting logins, altering configuration options, etc.

MSDB
If MSDB is used for monitoring and scheduling of SQL Jobs and maintenance plans, a daily full backup with 6hrly
differentials is recommended to minimize data loss from this database.

Distribution
For servers with replication, the distribution database needs to be backed up on a schedule based upon the
method of replication. Transactional replication requires frequent log backups with a daily full backup, while
snapshots require backups of either a log or differential after each snapshot is taken and either a daily or weekly
full backup.

Model
Model is often the forgotten database in backup scheduling due to minimal changes occurring to it after
installation. Still, a weekly full backup with adhoc full backups occurring after the database has any alterations or
additions to it is recommended.

User Databases
Selecting the correct recovery model of a database makes it possible to select the correct backup strategy for
that database. For instance, transaction log backups arent possible if the recovery model is in simple mode. It is
always safer to err on the side of caution and select full recovery model if you are unsure. For a data warehouse
where large amounts of bulk operations will occur, it is possible to look at a bulklogged recovery model to
increase performance and reduce log file growth, but it reduces your abilities in undertaking point in time
recovery operations.

Critical databases, including those where the data is costly to reenter, and those that are important to the
ongoing operations of the company, should be backed up on a very frequent schedule. In some instances,
backups of the transactions should occur at the subsecond level as frequently as every 10 seconds. Servers that

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contain mission critical databases need to have redundancy built into them in the form of clustering and log
shipping or mirroring of the actual database. In addition to undertaking frequent transactional backups, it is
important to do differential backups on a frequent basis to reduce the number of files required to restore a
database. Using software with next generation compression and deduplication technology can help address this
issue.

As the database becomes less critical, the number of transactional and the frequency of full backups can be
reduced to a minimum. The least critical databases should only require a weekly full backup and daily differential
backups for these databases. In these cases the recovery model should be set to simple so that the log file does
not grow beyond the available disk space.

Backup Reports
Reporting of all backup and restore operations, not only the notification of failed backups and restores, but
successful operations as well, should be part of your weekly schedule. From these reports it should be clear if
backup periods and data are increasing. This allows you to make future adjustments to backup and restore plans
before they become critical. It is also helpful for management to understand how long the restore operation will
take both the entire server and in particular for individual databases. A standard report from SQL Server on
Backup and Restore Events is a great start for reporting backups.

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SQL SERVER BACKUP PLANNING WORK SHEET

Server Profile
Hardware Server Hardware
Server Make Model DELL SL2500
SAN EMC Clarion 123
Software Operating System, SQL Server, Other Applications
Server O/S Windows 2008 SP1
SQL Server Version SQL Server 2008 Build1600
Drives Where files are located
System C
Application D
SQL Data EFGH
SQL Log IJKL
SQL tempdb MNOP

Database Data Drive/s Log Drive/s Data Size Log Size

<Database Name>
<Database Name>
<Database Name>
<Database Name>

Server Classification
Value of the Server to Operations Least 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Highest
Cost to Business for Lost Time Least 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Highest
Server Availability Least 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Highest
Changes to OS Least 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Highest
Changes to Applications Least 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Highest

Server High Availability Requirements

Clustered Server Virtual Standby Physical Standby

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Server Backup Schedules

Full Backup Weekly Monthly Yearly
Differential Backup Daily Weekly *Other
Incremental Backup Hourly 6 Hourly Daily
*Other would occur after any system changes

SQL Server Specific

Sensitivity of SQL Server Least 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Highest
Value to Business of SQL Server Least 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Highest

SQL Server High Availability Requirements

Clustered Server Virtual Standby Physical Standby

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SQL SERVER BACKUP REQUIREMENTS

System Database
Database Full Backup Differential Transaction Log
master Daily N/A N/A
msdb Daily 6 Hourly N/A
model Weekly N/A N/A
distribution* Daily 6 Hourly Hourly

*if replication is enabled

User Databases
Database Specific Database Name : <database name>
Sensitivity to Business of the DB Least 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Highest
Value to Business of the DB Least 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Highest
Ability to Rekey the data into DB Least 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Highest
Cost to Rekey the data into DB Least 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Highest
Frequency of changes to the DB Least 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Highest
Amount of data changed per hr Least 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Highest
Cost to Restore the Data Least 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Highest

Database High Availability Requirements

Mirrored Log Shipped Replicated

Database Backup Requirements
Database Name Full Backup Differential Transaction Log
Critical Daily 6 Hourly 5 to 15 minutes
High Daily 6 Hourly Hourly
Medium Weekly Daily Hourly
Low* Weekly Daily N/A
*Database in simple recovery mode

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SQL SERVER RESTORE PLANNING WORK SHEET

Server Restore
Full Restore to Physical or Virtual Server Quarterly Yearly
Test Restore of Individual Files Weekly Monthly Yearly
Full Restore of Individual Drive Monthly Quarterly

SQL Server Restore

Full Restore of SQL Server Instance Quarterly Yearly
Full Restore of System Databases Monthly Yearly

SQL Server Database Restore

Database Single Database All Databases Full Failover

Critical Databases Weekly Monthly Quarterly

High Databases Monthly Quarterly Yearly
Medium Databases Monthly Quarterly Yearly
Low Databases Monthly Quarterly Yearly
Every time you undertake a restore, you should collect information about the length of time to restore,
difficulties encountered and if testing by users was performed to check for functionality of the database. This will
enable you to improve your restore plans over time.

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