Regular Backup Tasks

The following summary of periodic backup tasks is something that should be a regular part of the daily routine of operators.

Supervisors should also verify that the operators are completing these tasks daily as required, since consistency is a very important part of the monitoring process.

These suggested tasks can also be modified depending on the organization and data availability requirements, but at a minimum these are tasks that should be completed.

Daily Tasks

• Bring back the previous offsite backup and put back with the regular tapes.
• Check email for successful completion and failure notifications.
• Review the server error logs for any problems and resolve.
• Check the text files and verify row counts for individually exported tables.
• Review the backup software error logs and resolve any errors.
• Review all of the backup times and make sure there are still appropriate time windows for backups to complete.
• Restore a random file from tape.
• Remove tapes and send offsite.

Weekly Tasks (In addition to the daily tasks)

• Do a full weekly backup of each server.
• Restore a few critical database tables on the production server.
• De-fragment servers.

Monthly Tasks (In addition to the daily and weekly tasks)

• Do a complete restore on the backup server.
• Make sure that that the complete process is documented and that the documentation is updated.
• Evaluate the time windows and make adjustments where necessary.
• Compare the size of tables, the number of rows, the disk space taken up by tables and all comparative statistics to those of the month before and resolve any anomalies.
• Check with vendors of DBMS, server software and tape backup software and get and install any patches or upgrades to the software.