Also mentioned was the fact that there is no easy way to provide a generic backup and restore strategy to fit all scenarios. This month we will outline three different scenarios and discuss the different backup options that could be used. This is in no way meant to be an official recommendation for how you should administer your systems, but I hope that it will give you a few ideas to use in formulating your own plans. You are working in a test environment where database changes from developers are implemented every two to three days. The actual data changes are not terribly important, but the testers are willing to lose at most a half-day's worth of test data.
Testers work during normal business hours.
This is a fairly straightforward scenario. You could start with a full database backup whenever the development team sends an update. These backups could be followed by differential backups at noon and the end of the business day, providing for the maximum half-day's data loss. With this plan, restoring the database would require two restores - the full backup and the latest differential backup. Minimal off-hours processing from the stock crew and delivery clerks can be expected.