point-in-time recovery.
Point-in-time recovery restores a database to any moment within a retention window, by combining a base backup with the transaction log. It is what makes recovery from a bad write possible rather than only recovery from a lost server.
Where point-in-time recovery fits on a long engagement.
Nightly backups protect against losing a server. They do not protect against the far more common event: a migration or a script that corrupts data at eleven in the morning. Without point-in-time recovery the choice is losing a day's work or living with the corruption, and neither is acceptable.
The recovery point and recovery time objectives are business decisions with cost attached, and they are usually assumed rather than agreed. How much data can be lost, and how long a restore may take, determine the backup architecture — and both are cheaper to decide before an incident than during one.
What an assigned team does with point-in-time recovery.
A backup that has never been restored is not a backup. Restores fail for ordinary reasons — missing permissions, incompatible versions, incomplete log archives — and every one of those is discovered during a real incident unless it was discovered during a test.
Scheduled restore testing is unglamorous, essential, and exactly the kind of recurring work an agreed committed monthly capacity is meant to include.
What we use point-in-time recovery for.
- Recovering from a bad write Restoring to the moment before a corrupting change, rather than to last night.
- Objectives agreed rather than assumed Acceptable data loss and restore time decided with the business, and designed for.
- Restores actually tested Scheduled rehearsals, so the failure modes are found before they matter.
How point-in-time recovery capacity is assigned.
Backup and recovery work is assigned under data engineering outsourcing, with restore testing scheduled rather than assumed.
Tell us what your roadmap needs point-in-time recovery for.
A service delivery manager replies with the disciplines we would assign, the monthly capacity and what the first month looks like.
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