Maintenance Summary

A full database backup of all production SQL Server instances is performed every Sunday from 1:00 AM to 3:00 AM. This is a recurring, pre-approved maintenance activity.

Affected Systems

  • db-prod-01.example.edu — ERP / Banner
  • db-prod-02.example.edu — Student Information System
  • db-prod-03.example.edu — HR & Payroll
  • db-prod-04.example.edu — Research Data Warehouse

Expected Impact

  • Brief connection interruptions of up to 90 seconds per database server during the VSS snapshot phase
  • Applications that auto-reconnect (Banner, SIS portal) will recover without user intervention
  • No impact expected for users outside the 1:00–3:00 AM window

Backup Retention Policy

Backup TypeFrequencyRetention
FullWeekly (Sun)4 weeks
DifferentialDaily7 days
Transaction logEvery 15 min3 days

Procedure Overview

  1. Initiate VSS snapshot per database server
  2. Copy snapshot to NAS backup target (\\backup-nas\db-prod\)
  3. Verify checksum of backup files
  4. Replicate verified backup to off-site DR storage
  5. Purge expired backup files per retention policy
  6. Log completion to monitoring system

Contacts

For issues during or after this maintenance window, contact Database Operations at db-ops@example.edu or escalate via the on-call pager at ext. 5555.