Even a small PingDataMetrics Server installation, which monitors three to four servers, will use sample tables that occupy 95% of the total DBMS space. While a functional backup must capture a consistent view of several tables, the size of the sample tables dictates the desired approach to a regular backup strategy.

The historical samples enable:
  • Diagnosing past performance problems
  • Capacity planning and historical reporting
  • Access to data needed for a revenue stream, such as data used for billing and charge back
Defining data that is important to the infrastructure will help determine the right backup strategy. In the case of billing, the data needed is typically small compared to the total population of the DBMS. This may be all the data needed, and the planning and resources required to backup the DBMS will be minimal.
Note:

If it's not possible to determine what data will be important in the future, backing up all DBMS data is the safest approach.