I have got two particular databases to look after that are both on Win Server 2003.

One of them gets lots and lots of use and the automatic online backup happens very regularly and because it has archive logs I am not too concerned about being able to restore the data to a specific point in time.

I still need to negotiate with the owner some weekly offline backups - but that's another story.

The other database is not needed 24x7 so it has an offline window where it's automatic backups can run. Again, I have left it up to db2 to decide when the backups should be taken.

Here is the problem though. The database does not get much use, but yesterday some data was definitely changed. However the automatic backup has not been run when I would have thought it would.

This database is using circular logging. The last backup was taken on the 9th April, surely I have the potential to lose a number of changes. Admittedly not a great deal of changes, but still, it would be a pain. At the moment I think we could weather losing a day's work.


I think I should make the database use archive logging and run my own daily full offline backup via a script (I have a script all ready to go).

What do people with more experience think please? I am open to suggestions! Is relying on automatic backups a good idea?

Thank you for your time in having a think about this.

Doing database backups should not be done in a vacuum. The entire enterprise does not revolve strictly around the database. There are other systems and infrastructure that need to also be taken into account. Letting the database backup at it own leisure maybe OK for the database, but it probably does not fit well into the entire enterprise. You should have the backups done on a set schedule that works well with everything else that is going on throughout the enterprise.

Andy