Restore Points - "Best Practice"

[gio.stefani]

So our environment is heavily SQL Server based with fairly large databases. Currently, we run a Veeam Backup job every 4 hours and the job contains 6 SQL servers. Restore points are set to "42", 4 hrs x 6 (24hrs) x 7 days. This backs up to a local repository (iSCSI) 40TB and also has a Backup Copy job that runs "Continuous" to a cloud provider. That job is set to keep 7 restore points, since restoring is typically done from the local repository and not the cloud repository. Just wondering if anyone else has a similar environment and their take on restore points.

[veremin]

Hi, Gio,

And welcome to our community forums.

As to your plan, it looks solid, since it meets all your backup requirements; not sure whether these include log backup, but take a look at this feature, if so.

Thanks!

[foggy]

Also seems your requirement is to keep backups for the last 7 days rather than exactly 42 restore points, so take a look at the retention based on the number of days rather than restore points.

[gio.stefani]

@verimin, Actually, I'm using "Application Aware" processing so the transaction logs get truncated. @foggy, my goal is 42 restore points which if you do the math equates to 7 days. In the job, it's already set for 42 restore points and given the fact that the a restore point is created every time the job runs which is every 4 hours, would be 6 restore points a day (24 hours) x 7 days. Setting it to 7 days versus restore points would still end up with the same number of restore points. My goal is a maximum RPO of 4 hours. If I changed to days and set it to 14 days, I'd end up with 84 restore points.

[foggy]

Indeed, in theory 42 restore points and 7 days are technically equal in terms of retention with your current settings. What I meant though was the fact that if you, for example, someday trigger an unscheduled backup manually, then with 42 restore points retention, the oldest one will fall out of 7 days and, depending on the backup method used, might be deleted, breaking the requirement to be able to restore to the very beginning of the 7 days period. With 7 days retention, it will be kept as the one being created during the last 7 days. It is just a matter of your preference though.

[backupquestions]

Gio,

You still get app aware with log backup. I would suggest only taking a veeam backup of the sql servers themselves once per day, while setting up the sql log backup for every 4 hours.

Usually windows and stuff isn't going to change all that much each day. The important thing is the data in your sql databases so the log backups around the clock "or every 4 hours or even as quick as every 15 min etc" is what would matter.

The logs would be truncated during each daily backup of the vms themselves.

This is how I do it and I think it would be a lighter hit on your environment to just back up the servers once a day and sql more often.