WESTFIELD GROUP

Backup Strategy
Microsoft SQL Server
Wickham.Andrew.J
8/28/2012

This document outlines Westfield Groups backup strategy for its Microsoft SQL Server
environment.
Table of Contents
Abstract ........................................................................................................................................... 2
Current State ................................................................................................................................... 3
Problem Statement ..................................................................................................................... 3
No Point-in-Time Recovery...................................................................................................... 3
Large Amounts of Disk Space .................................................................................................. 3
Future State ..................................................................................................................................... 4
Advantages and Disadvantages ................................................................................................... 4
Financial Impact........................................................................................................................... 5
Cost .......................................................................................................................................... 5
Benefit ..................................................................................................................................... 5
Abstract
This document outlines the backup strategy for the Microsoft SQL Server environment at
Westfield Group. The backup strategy documented is a general rule of thumb, and is not
necessarily true for every database in the environment. Systems such as Microsoft SharePoint
and Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager are not compatible with transaction log
backups, making this strategy not applicable.
Current State
Databases use the simple recovery model and have full backups taken on a regular basis.

Problem Statement
No Point-in-Time Recovery
When using the simple recovery model, the only restore points that exist are at the latest
backup. When taking nightly backups, that means you could theoretically have almost 24 hours
of data loss if a database restore is necessary.

Large Amounts of Disk Space

Since data is kept on tape for 60 days, there is a large amount of tape storage being used. A
10GB database will end up taking up 600GBs of tape storage. With Guidewire ClaimCenter and
Microsoft SharePoint being implemented, this will not be acceptable. The estimated size for
Guidewire ClaimCenter is 750GB. That would mean almost 45TB of data being used on tape.
Future State
Databases will use the full recovery model with full backups on a weekly basis, differential
backups on a daily basis, and transaction log backups on a regular interval throughout the day.

Advantages and Disadvantages

Advantages
Point-in-Time Recovery
Databases can be restored to a given point in
time, which will reduce the amount of data
loss should a database restore be required.
Reduced Storage Requirements
While the number of backups will increase, the
total footprint of the backups will decrease.
The differential and transactional backups only
backup changes to the database, not the
entire database.
Reduced Maintenance Windows
The maintenance windows for the backup
operations will decrease throughout the week.
Reduced SAN I/O
Since less data will be backed up, less I/Os will
occur on the SAN. Since the SAN is shared
among many servers, this will give some
performance opportunity back to the rest of
the environment.
Disadvantages
Complex Backup Management
Managing which backups are on disk will be
much more complex.
More Complex Database Restores
Restoring to a point-in-time is a more complex
process than restoring to the latest backup.
The full backup will have to be restored, then a
differential, and then the transaction logs.
Longer Restore Time
Depending upon what point-in-time the
database is restored to, it may require more
time than the current backup model. This is for
the same reason that makes them more
complex.
Financial Impact
Cost
The financial impact by implementing the new backup recovery strategy is purely soft dollars.
No hardware or software will need to be purchased in order to implement this new strategy. It
is estimated that it will require 40 man hours to implement this new strategy.

Benefit
The positive financial impact is that less storage will be used, both disk and tape, and that if a
recovery were to have to happen, we could restore to a closer point-in-time before the incident.
That will mean fewer man hours required to re-enter the data that has been lost.