Backup Decision Form

General Decision Criteria

When we think about backing up our data the following aspects could be relevant:

  • System configuration: configuration and installation state of the target system
  • Application configuration: the settings of the actual application
  • Application binaries: the executable files of the application
  • Application data: data that is created by the usage of the application
  • Log data: log messages which protocols important occurrences

Decisions criteria per Application

In addition to the actual backup contents (for which backup general guidelines can apply), the individual application must also be considered:

ID Measurement
Application name
Current application data size
Estimated application data growth for upcoming year
Log data growth / year
Application data backup on "Source" System
Generations in daily interval
Generations in weekly interval
Generations in monthly interval
Application data backup on the "Sink" System
Generations in daily interval
Generations in weekly interval
Generations in monthly interval
Application requirements
Importance / availability of Application data
Confidentiality of application data
Confidentiality of log data
Recovery time from failure

Decision example for the "sample company"

As a general rule

We make a backup for application data and log data. Code and configurations do not need backup because the code is stored in the version management system.

  • System configuration: Is fully created by ConfigManagement and is therefore always reproducible. - No need for backup.
  • Application configuration: Is completely created by ConfigManagement and is therefore always reproducible. - No need for backup.
  • Application binaries: Binaries are stored for ConfigManagement on a special artifact server. - No additional backup required, general storage time: 1 year.
  • Application data: Backed up according to criteria table - Backup requirements.
  • Log data: Log data is partly aggregated and collected in real time (Logstash, Ossec). Log data is to be additionally saved for an in-depth analysis. Log data is thus saved according to the criteria table - backup requirement, general retention time: 1 year.

Per application

For the definition of the application-specific requirements we have the above mentioned Table. For availability, we use the following definition:

Definition Availability

  • High: Highly important data is stored in another data center.
  • Normal: Normal important data is stored on another server.
  • Low: Less important data is kept only on the same server and on the host provider's backup store.