I am now working for a small company who don't have a dedicated SQL Server DBA. After a brief chat with the IT manager he told me that he is not confident that the backup script he was given responsibility to run is backing up all the databases. He said that he's aware of the various tools available to automate our current process but doesn't have the knowledge to implement them!
I asked him about the number of SQL Server instances we have and the versions/editions we have. He said he doesn't know.
So I'm thinking, is it a good starting point to document the number of SQL Server instances / versions / editions / number of DBs / sizes etc using a tool such MS MAP? Would this be a good start to kick start the process of creating a backup plan?
As a basis you should have in place and inventory list of all SQL Server instances and supporting technologies. The documentation should be detailed enough to deal with a full rebuild (if required). Regularly review the documentation - and a DR exercise is of great value. Your backup strategy should reflect the agreed Recovery Point Objective (RPO) . For example , if 1 hr loss is acceptable - then the backup strategy should be in place to support at minimum this expectation. Checking the backups are successfull should be a very regular task - and monitoring should be in place to monitor failed backups
Another useful report to run is a daily Health Check - whereby you identify any anomalies on the configurations , sizes, last backup etc - whatever you consider to be important.
Backup plan discussion
Posted - 08/06/2012 : 10:05:21
