Time plan and retention time

In most cases you should create a backup once a day, typically at a time when the server load is low. Rather than overwriting the backup from the previous day you should create a new backup and delete older copies from time to time. Just having a backup from last night is not sufficient for recovery since it would require that you notice the need for a restore within 24 hours. Here is an example for a good backup strategy:

  • keep one daily backup for each of the last 7 days
  • keep one weekly backup for each of the last 4 weeks
  • keep one monthly backup for each of the last 6 months
  • keep one yearly backup for each year