This was the 5th week of the course, it was all about backup and recovery.
The readings included a Microsoft article about file backup and recovery but I was able to find a collection of articles on Microsoft’s website that covered the backups and recovery of databases (SQL server exactly).
Also, I successfully signed up with TechTarget; after 2 unsuccessful attempts. It is a rich content source with loads of high-quality articles.
The discussion assignment asked to discuss the pros and cons of 10 and 14 tape rotations for a full backup schedule. I discussed them and chose the 3-2-1 backup strategy as the best option.
The written assignment asked to discuss the difference between differential and incremental backups. I discussed them and chose the combination of a weekly schedule of full backup on the first day, then differential backups for the rest of the week applying the 3-2-1 backup strategy as the best option.
Discuss the time you needed to restore some files to your computer and the process failed, what did you do?¶
I was once working on a WordPress website for a client; I had to back up the database before I started working on it. I had little knowledge about backups I decided to make one full backup of the database, and one for the entire file system.
While working on the website, I needed to restore the database to a previous version. I used the full backup I made of the database, but it failed.
The backup size was very huge, and the server could not simply restore it in one go.
The website was live for a lot of time and it has a huge database.
Some of the tables were very huge but had little importance (logs, analytics, etc.); while the products and user data are much smaller in size but very important.
To solve the issue, I installed a fresh local Mysql server and imported the database to it (from the backup).
I then made several small partial backups of small groups of tables.
I would go then to the live server and restore each one of these smaller backups one by one.
The process was tedious and took a lot of time, but it was the only way to restore the database to a previous version.
Knowing what I know now; I would have made several backups before I touch the website. These backups include:
One full backup of the database (similar to the one I made).
Back important user data separately, including other tables that belong to this group.
Back up products, orders, and other tables that belong to this group.
One full backup of the entire file system.
Start logging all changes that will happen during the backup and the later development of the website.