Introduction
Organizations are facing an expanding set of data protection challenges. Not only do
they rely on database applications for every area of their business including sales,
customer service, finance, marketing, manufacturing and human resources, but many of
these applications needs to be available 24x7. At the same time, the volumes of data
that need to be managed are growing exponentially putting added pressure on available
storage and storage costs.
Implementing proper database backup and disaster recovery plans to protect against
accidental loss of data, database corruption, hardware/operating system crashes or any
natural disasters has become one of the most important responsibilities of the Database
Administrator (DBAs). Unfortunately, if you don’t have an adequate database backup
and recovery strategy and implementation in place then you are left with nothing to fall
back on.
As a DBA you need to make sure that the databases are backed up regularly and timely
recovery procedures are in place. MySQL Enterprise Backup provides DBAs with a high-
performance, online “hot” backup solution with data compression technology to ensure
your data is protected in case of downtime or an outage.
Database Backup Terms
Before we dive into backup strategies and methodologies lets first cover some backup
and recovery terminology.
Online Backup – An online or “hot” backup is a backup that can be performed while the
database is running. Read and write operations can continue while the database is
being backed up. There is no need to shutdown the database or lock database files
which results in zero business interruption.
Incremental Backup – An incremental backup is a backup that only contains data that
has changed since the last complete full backup. An incremental backup is the fastest
backup and requires the least amount of storage space. However, incremental backups
also require the longest time to restore.
Partial Backup – A partial backup is a backup of only part of the database such as
selected tables.
Consistent Point in Time Recovery – Consistent Point in Time recovery enables
recovery of a database to a consistent state at a specific target time.
Roll Forward Recovery – Roll forward recovery makes it possible to restore a database
to the most recent state before a failure occurred.
Requirements Assessment
In order to develop a backup strategy you must first assess your needs. Your backup
and recovery implementation will depend on a lot of factors including value of the data,
data change frequency, industry regulations, corporate governance and many more.
Here are some questions to ask yourself in order to get started:
