Data Backup Guide: Best Practices, Methods, and Storage Options

Data backup is essential for an organization's survival in today's increasingly digital business environment. You face the danger of having your data stolen by criminals who will sell it to the highest bidder or be held hostage by them. Your carefully crafted information may be corrupted by implanted malware. Your priceless digital assets might be deleted by disgruntled workers or other insider threats. Can data loss be repaired?

For successful and economical backup, data backup is a strategy that includes tactics and solutions. Your data is replicated at a predetermined frequency and in varying capacities in one or more places. Using your own architecture, you may build up a flexible data backup operation, or you can combine backup as a service (BaaS) options with local storage. Corporate storage TCO solutions are widely available nowadays to assist with cost estimation, data loss prevention, and data breach prevention.

In this article we will discuss the following topics related to data backup:

• What is data backup?

• Why is data backup necessary?

• What are the different types of data backup methods?

• What are the benefits of Backup?

• What are the common challenges and risks of data backup?

• How often should data be backed up?

• What are the best practices for data backup?

• What are the different backup storage options?

• How to restore data from backups?

• How to backup Zenarmor configuration?

• How to backup OPNsense configuration?

What is Data Backup?

The word "backup" represents the act of moving physical or virtual information or databases to a separate place for preservation in the case of a catastrophe or equipment failure. Data backup is essential to a successful disaster recovery strategy. In the case of faulty software, corrupted data, hardware failure, hostile hacking, human mistake, or other unanticipated occurrences, businesses back up the data they consider to be susceptible. Data can be restored to its prior state by using a point-in-time snapshot that backups record and synchronize.

Testing for backup and recovery includes an analysis of data protection and replication techniques and technologies. The aim is to provide dependable and quick data recovery in case of emergency. File restoration is the process of getting backup data files restored.

Although data protection includes the larger objectives of business continuity, data security, information lifecycle management, and avoidance of malware and computer viruses, the phrases data backup and data protection are frequently used interchangeably.

Why is Data Backup Necessary?

In the case of a main data failure, the backup's goal is to make a duplicate of the data that can be retrieved. Primary data failures come from hardware or software issues, data corruption, human error like a hostile attack (virus or malware), data deletion accidents, or other human-caused incidents. To aid a company in recovering from an unexpected catastrophe, backup copies make it possible to restore data to a previous point in time.

To safeguard against primary data loss or corruption, it is essential to save a copy of the data on a different media. An extra media might be something as basic as an external drive or USB stick, or it could be something more substantial like a disk storage system, cloud storage container, or tape drive. The alternate media could be farther distant or located close to the original data. Having copies of the data at distant places may be justified by the probability of weather-related occurrences.

The amount of data lost between backups should be kept to a minimum for optimal outcomes, hence backup copies should be generated consistently and often. Data loss when recovering from a backup increases in proportion to the interval between backup copies. It is possible to restore to a time when there was no data corruption or harmful assaults by keeping several copies of the data.

What are the Different Types of Data Backup Methods?

For a long time, backup software has offered a variety of backup procedures. The three most often used backup kinds are full, incremental, and differential. Synthetic full backups and mirroring are other backup formats.

There are several backup options that are superior in particular regions in the argument between local backup and backup in the cloud. Incremental backups are typically more suitable for cloud backup since they utilize fewer resources. Beginning with a complete backup on the cloud, you may later switch to incremental backups. Nevertheless, mirror backup frequently uses disks and is more of an on-premises option.

Types of backup methods are outlined below:

• Full backups: Full backup, as the name suggests, copies all data to a disk or tape for storage. Every procedure should include a full backup in order to have a complete copy of all data on one piece of media. This is the main benefit. As a result, the time needed to restore data is kept to a minimum, or what is known as a recovery time target. The drawbacks are that it requires more storage space and takes longer to complete a full backup than other kinds (often by a factor of 10 or more). As a result, complete backups are normally only performed occasionally. Small data centers (especially those with vital applications) may decide to execute a complete backup every day, or even more often in specific circumstances. In backup operations, a complete backup is frequently used in conjunction with incremental or differential backups.

• Incremental backups: Just the data that has changed since the last backup operation of any kind will be copied as a consequence of an incremental backup procedure. The changed time stamp on files is often used by an organization, and it is contrasted with the timestamp of the most recent backup. Backup software tracks and records the date and time that backup actions occur in order to keep track of files that have changed since backup operations. An organization may execute incremental backups as frequently as needed and only store the most recent changes since they only replicate data that has changed since the last backup of any kind. One advantage of an incremental backup is that it replicates fewer data than a complete backup. These processes thus result in faster backup rates and need less storage space for the backup.

• Differential backups: The first time a differential backup operation is conducted, it transfers all the data that has changed since the last backup, much like an incremental backup. But each time it is performed after that, it will keep copying all the data that has changed since the last complete backup. As a result, it will often save much fewer data than a complete backup, but more data than an incremental backup on successive operations. Moreover, differential backups take longer and use more space than incremental backups, albeit they still take up less space than full backups.

Each backup procedure functions differently. A full backup must be performed at least once by an organization. You can do a further complete backup, an incremental backup, or a differential backup for subsequent backups. Whether incremental or differential, the initial partial backup will store the same data. Just the modifications made since the last incremental are included in the data that is backed up with an incremental during the third backup operation. These three primary backup types can be used to provide a system for comprehensive data protection. An organization usually uses one of the following backup configurations:

• Full daily
• Full weekly + differential daily
• Full weekly + incremental daily

The best backup plan will depend on a number of factors. Every alternative and strategy decision often entails balancing cost, data retention, performance, and data protection levels.

Running a complete backup every day uses the greatest storage space and takes the longest. Nevertheless, there are more total copies of the data accessible, thus performing a restoration operation requires fewer pieces of media. Because every necessary piece of data will only be present on one backup set, applying this backup policy has a higher tolerance for disasters and requires the shortest amount of time to recover.

As an alternative, conducting daily incremental backups together with a full backup once a week will result in the quickest weekday backup time and consume the least amount of storage. Nevertheless, because an organization could need to employ six sets of media to retrieve the required data, there are fewer copies of the data accessible and the restoration process takes the longest. The Sunday complete backup, together with the Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday incremental media sets, are needed if data from the Wednesday backup is needed. This can significantly lengthen recovery timeframes and necessitates the appropriate operation of each media set; the failure of one backup set might have an adverse effect on the overall restoration.

Performing a weekly full backup along with daily differential backups produces outcomes that are comparable to the other options. In other words, restoring from backups requires more media sets than with a daily full policy, but fewer than with a daily incremental policy. Moreover, the restore time is longer than both daily full backups and daily incremental backups. At most two media sets are needed to restore data from a certain day, which reduces recovery time and the possibility of issues with an unreadable backup set.

What is Mirror Backup?

A mirror backup is comparable to a full backup. According to a blog post from backup service Nakivo, "This backup kind generates an exact clone of the source data set, but just the current data version is stored in the backup repository with no trace of various versions of the files". The term comes from the fact that the backup is a mirror of the source data. Similar to how they are in the source, every single file that is backed up is saved independently.

A quick data recovery time is one of the advantages of mirror backup. It is simple to retrieve certain backup files.

The quantity of storage space needed, however, is one of the major disadvantages. Organizations should be cautious of cost increases and maintenance requirements with that more storage. Mirror backup encounters the same issues as the original data set in the event of corruption or deletion. Because of this, it's a good idea to have additional forms of data backup in addition to mirror backups for your data security needs. You should adhere to the 3-2-1 backup guideline, which calls for making three copies of your data on two separate media and storing one copy offsite.

Disk mirroring, a particular type of mirror, is commonly referred to as RAID 1. Data is replicated via this procedure to two or more drives. Because of its short recovery time, disk mirroring is a good alternative for data that requires high availability. Because of its capabilities for fast failover, it is beneficial for disaster recovery. It needs at least two physical drives for disk mirroring. An organization can utilize the mirror copy if a hard disk fails. Disk mirroring provides thorough data security, but it uses a lot of storage space.

What are the Benefits of Backup?

These are 7 advantages data backup may offer for your business:

• Recovery and Replication of Data: The primary objective of data backup is to assure data restoration and recovery. A reliable recovery system can help you avoid disruptions and maintain business continuity. Replication is a feature present in the majority of data backup and recovery programs. This functionality generates and stores copies of your project data in real-time. Consequently, you can be confident that your data is secure. In the event of data loss, replication allows you to quickly restore your endeavors.

• Data Security: Security is an essential component of data storage and recovery. Protecting an organization's project management data requires a solution for data backup and restoration with sound security. Investing in reliable data backup and recovery services can protect your data from catastrophes such as data proliferation and intrusions. It is essential for ensuring the security of customer data and legal compliance.

• Easy Data Management: Data recovery is a laborious and disagreeable process. As a consequence, organizations frequently encounter various data management complications during restoration. Using the proper data backup program, however, makes the recovery process simple to manage. Moreover, a reliable data backup system enables users to consistently and frequently back up their data. Most data recovery solutions generate an exhaustive backup strategy automatically. So that you can protect your data from errors without sacrificing efficacy. These automatically generated restore points allow businesses to recuperate from any data crisis.

• Unrestricted Performance: Manually backing up an organization's data requires considerable time and resources. Moreover, company servers frequently struggle to manage large amounts of data. Backup and recovery programs provide the optimal solution in such circumstances. A data backup system can increase network performance and decrease storage costs, whereas manual backups require more storage space and bandwidth. With the proper data recovery solution, the organization can continue with daily operations without any slowdowns.

• Cost Management: Losing crucial organizational data can be fatal to a corporation. Losing sensitive consumer information can result in litigation, and data loss can halt projects, reduce productivity, and cause financial losses. Therefore, although data backup, recovery solutions, and software may appear costly initially, they are a prudent investment in the long run.

• Maintaining Compliance Standards: Various data privacy laws currently make it a requirement for organizations to hold their data appropriately. Infractions of such compliance regulations may result in fines and legal repercussions. Moreover, data backup services enable you to retain a copy of your projects as well as monitor their progress for auditing purposes.

• Enhancement of Competitive Advantage: Organizations become increasingly dependent on data. In such a business environment, data efficiency provides a competitive edge. With online backup and recovery solutions, users can access client data from anywhere. Additionally, the sophisticated security features of a backup system protect customer data.

What are the Challenges and Risks of Data Backup?

Let's look more closely at the top five difficulties that firms have when trying to simplify backup and disaster recovery:

• Regular backup scheduling: Setting up frequent backup schedules is essential to ensure that you always have the most recent versions of your information available. Data backups cannot be done just once. A key objective should be to establish a regular routine for this procedure that runs like clockwork.

• Data integrity protection: You won't get much use out of recovering backed-up copies of files if you find that some of those files are damaged, or worse, completely absent. For this reason, it is obviously crucial to keep your backups safe.

• Adhering to your architectural style: In accordance with your architecture: Do you have the physical IT resources required to safeguard, back up, and make all of your data accessible when you need it most? Make sure your IT infrastructure and backup procedures are up to date.

• Establishing data backup priorities: Not all data is created equal; certain files are more crucial than others, and in an emergency, you need to be able to retrieve your most crucial information quickly. You can move swiftly under pressure and make wise judgments if you have a list of your top data priorities.

• Defending against ransomware: In today's environment, attacks from ransomware and other dangers are frequent and only becoming worse. Your security infrastructure will need to be regularly updated to make sure you always have the necessary capabilities to identify and stop suspicious activities.

How Often Should Data Be Backed Up?

The only way to prevent your firm from losing crucial data is to do regular backups. Important data should be backed up at least once each week, but better once every 24 hours.

There are two ways to back up data: manually and automatically. There are several automated software solutions that you may use to schedule the backup of your data for a specific period of the day or week.

Even if something goes wrong overnight, you may be sure you are not missing anything by regularly backing up. Daily backups are relatively easy if you utilize the data backup solutions provided by an IT company.

The majority of firms will have to safeguard their customers' contact information, financial information, billing, bookkeeping, order information, website code, custom programming, and passwords. Data backups for documents, presentations, spreadsheets, appointments, and emails may be added by specific workers.

When it comes to what should be prioritized for the daily backup, certain firms will have more particular requirements, such as those blueprints, PDFs, corporate literature, or artwork. Instead of setting up automatic backups to the cloud, you may save data to a USB flash drive, external hard drive, CD, or DVD.

What are the Best Practices for Data Backup?

Having a backup mechanism enabled helps prevent data loss from device malfunction, natural catastrophes, file corruption, virus, or malicious people. A backup strategy offers instructions on how to set up the appropriate systems and procedures to reduce the amount of time spent attempting to restore files, gather data, or redo any cleaning or analysis. Below you can find seven backup strategies and best practices:

• Keep Retention Span in mind: Retention periods for data backups should be defined for data governance and storage costs. Backup schedules should correspond to retention schedules. For instance, depending on the needs of the firm, retain hourly and daily backups for a week, weekly backups for a month, and monthly backups for a few months or even years.

• Publish policies and practices: Documenting backup procedures should be done in detail. This should include an explanation of the objectives and strategies, specifications of the tools and procedures employed, the assignments of duties, the timing of backups, and retention schedules.

• Ensure that backups are secure and encrypted: Encrypting the files offers extra data protection in addition to the safety of backup sites (such as the cloud or physical).

• Consistently and often create backups: Regular data backups should be done, albeit not all types of data should be backed up at the same time. Certain data may be continuously backed up. Additional backups could be done on a regular basis, daily, at night, or once a week.

• Regularly test backup and recovery procedures: Periodic data backup testing should be carried out, at the very least annually or semi-annually. Data backup testing may be performed more often depending on the size and resources of the company.

• Utilize distant storage: Setting up remote backups is a crucial component of any backup strategy. Although having backups elsewhere is desirable, they should at the very least be on a different system. Either a dedicated physical server or the cloud can be used for data backup.

• Use the 3-2-1 data backup method: Use a 3-2-1 data backup technique to increase the redundancy of data backups. Several backups of the data are made and kept using the 3-2-1 backup approach.

  • Three copies of data: Maintain three copies of your data, including the original copy and two backups. This ensures that a lost backup or corrupted media will not hinder data recovery.
  • Two different storage types: Using two distinct storage technologies reduces the risk of failure associated with a particular medium. Internal and external hard drives, removable media, and cloud storage are common options.
  • One copy off-site: One replica stored off-site eliminates the risk of a single point of failure. Offsite copies are required for comprehensive calamity and data backup recovery strategies and can facilitate failover in the event of local outages.

What are the Different Backup Storage Options?

You have a number of options for backing up your documents. By selecting the suitable option, you may make the best data backup strategy for your needs. The most often used six techniques or technologies are as follows:

• Removable Media: Backing up data to removable storage devices like CDs, DVDs, more recent Blu-Ray disks, or USB flash drives is an easy choice. Smaller settings may find this useful, but bigger data volumes will require you to back up to numerous drives, which can make recovery more difficult. You must be certain to keep your backups in a different area or they can be lost in a disaster. This includes backups on tape as well.

• External Hard Drive (On-premise): A portable hard drive is a small-scale solution for a server environment on-premises. These are conventional and common modes of backup. The primary benefits are portability and relative affordability. There are physical hazards associated with hard drives, as they can malfunction just like internal drives, and a fire or flood that destroys your computer will also ruin the external hard drive if you do not transport it home every night.

• Network Attached Storage (On-premise and off-premise): NAS is created by connecting a NAS device or a dedicated storage server to your server network in order to store files. NAS provides a solution on a slightly larger scale and is better suited for enterprises with multiple servers. This solution is more disaster-resistant because multiple NAS devices (on-site and off-site) can be installed and synchronized online.

• Cloud data storage: Cloud-based backup options are appropriate for enterprises of all sizes. You and your personnel can back up their data to the cloud from any Internet-connected server or device. Providers of cloud backup solutions offer client support, making it a popular solution due to its convenience. Since data is stored on the provider's property, it will not be affected by a natural disaster in your area. The primary concerns with cloud-based backup solutions are privacy and security. Choose a cloud-based backup service that employs adequate security measures.

How to Restore Data from Backups?

The act of transferring backup data from secondary storage and restoring it to its original place or a new one is known as data restoration. A restoration is carried out to relocate data to a new place or restore data that has been lost, stolen, or damaged to its original state.

There are various situations that necessitate data restoration. The first is a human mistake, where data is unintentionally lost or corrupted. Aside from malicious assaults that expose, steal, or infect data, there are also power outages, man-made or natural disasters, device theft, breakdowns, and firmware corruption.

Data restore guarantees that the data backup is compatible with the state of the data at a specific moment in time before the damage occurred and makes a usable copy of the data accessible to replace lost or damaged data.

A system must be in place to create a reliable copy of the data being protected via traditional backup, snapshots, or continuous data protection (CDP) in order for data restoration to be an effective element of the overall data management process. There is nothing salvageable that can be restored without a trustworthy protection copy.

It's essential to evaluate the restore procedure and the data recovery tools utilized in order to guarantee that a trustworthy data backup version is accessible for restoration. In order to make sure that protection copies match recovery point goals (RPOs), they should be randomly reviewed at different times. RPOs, recovery time goals (RTOs), and other service criteria must be complied with, and the data being restored must be legible, consistent with a selected point in time, and include the necessary information.

Before doing a real data restoration, it is necessary to make sure that all apps can make use of the recovered data. This necessitates the availability of the data formatting software as well as the proper implementation of security certificates, permissions, access control, and decryption.

The simplicity of data restoration depends on where backup data is kept.

Because it's simple to find data on disks and the systems are frequently on-site, HDD backups offer speedy data restoration. HDDs are safer than off-site tape and cloud backup for the same reason. Disk systems, however, are more expensive than other data backup and restoration techniques; expenses include the electricity required to run the disk systems as well as the cooling systems they need. For data that changes often and needs a quick recovery, HDD backups work best.

High-capacity storage is offered by tape backup systems at a price that is less than that of HDDs. The recovery time for tape is still greater than for disks or the cloud, even with the most recent technologies, and it increases when data is kept off-site. To make sure that data is available when requested, tape libraries need constant maintenance and testing.

Businesses using cloud backup must transmit a copy of their data over their business network or the internet to an off-site server that is either their own or hosted by a service provider. Due to network capacity restrictions, it may take some time for the data to travel the same way when it is time to restore it. Because of this, non-critical data with a longer RTO is typically backed up and restored using the cloud.

What information was lost or destroyed, how much data was impacted, how the incident occurred, the program used to build the data backup, the backup destination media, and other variables all affect how data is restored. Some backup programs let users do their own file restoration. Unbacked-up files that were mistakenly erased from the hard disk can be recovered using data recovery software and services. IT must recover backup files from disk, tape, or other backup media using a variety of approaches as a result of more sophisticated data loss or destruction, including:

• Instant Recovery: The recovery window is eliminated with instant recovery, sometimes referred to as recovery in situ, which transfers the user workload to a backup server. Users almost immediately have access to a snapshot of their workload that can be restored, allowing them to continue working while IT takes care of complete recovery and data restoration in the background. The user's workload is then transferred back to the original virtual machine after that procedure is finished.

• Replication: Data backup with integrated replication frequently lacks a product that allows historical recovery and isn't a full backup capability, but replication provides even quicker, almost immediate access to data.

• CDP: Data backup with CDP involves taking snapshots each time the data changes. This method enables data to be restored to any point in time, but it has drawbacks such as taxing a system's CPU and requiring a lot of storage to handle frequently updated data.

• Near-CDP: Near-CDP is the process of consolidating changes over a longer period of time by taking periodic snapshots of the data that has changed. Compared to a full-fledged CDP, this method reduces the overall amount of storage needed to support backed-up data.

• Traditional backup: Traditional backup involves storing data locally or remotely on HDDs or magnetic tape. The best time to employ a traditional backup is after a significant hardware failure or site disaster. Although it lacks the efficiency and scalability of other approaches, it is a more effective long-term strategy for data retention and restoration.

• Mobile backup and restore: There are particular difficulties in backing up and restoring mobile data from cell phones, tablets, and computers. Traditional backup software frequently makes the assumption that the devices it is backing up have a fixed location, reliable connections to the corporate network, and sufficient bandwidth. However, some features are frequently unavailable on mobile devices. Enterprise file sync and share (EFSS) services transfer files to the cloud or to on-premises storage to secure data on mobile devices. Although EFSS makes it possible for users to retrieve these files on other desktop and mobile devices, it is not a real backup since it does not provide the rollback of data to a specific point in time in the event that the device malfunctions, is lost or stolen, or if the data on it is damaged or deleted. Although the majority of Android and all iOS devices feature native, image-based backups, consumers are still in charge of backing up these devices. One approach to tackle this is with an endpoint backup package that includes file sync and sharing, supports mobile devices, and supports. The secret to efficient data restoration on mobile devices, like with other business data backup and restore operations, is to have a consistent, tried-and-true backup methodology as well as data recovery technologies in place so that data can be swiftly and simply restored when necessary.

How to Backup Zenarmor Configuration?

By doing the following 3 steps, you can quickly backup the Zenarmor configuration and policy files:

1. In your OPNsense GUI, go to Zenarmor > Configuration > Backup.

Figure 1: Navigating to Zenarmor→Configuration→Backup.

2. By turning on the toggle button in the Zenarmor Backup panel, you may encrypt the backup file. You must enter and confirm a password if encryption is enabled.

Figure 2: Backup File Without Encryption

3. To begin the backup process, click the Run Backup option. You are informed by the popup notice once the backup is finished. Backups are often kept on the firewall itself. It is crucial that you click the Download option in the dialog box to download the backup file to your local storage. Your backup files on the Zenarmor GUI will be deleted if you perform a fresh setup. You ought to preserve it on a secure external storage device, such as your computer.

How to Backup OPNsense Configuration?

To safeguard system data and ensure its accessibility, you must regularly back up your OPNsense. To harden your OPNsense security you need to protect your backup files.

You can manually backup your OPNsense configuration by navigating to System > Configuration > Backups on OPNsense web UI. Because your configuration data is confidential, it's best to encrypt backups with a strong password before keeping or sharing them with others.

Backups can be restored in full or in part, depending on the setup. As configurations typically consist of a number of interdependent components, it is safest to restore an entire configuration.

OPNsense offers os-api-backup plugin which allows you to backup configuration automatically as well.