Backup and restore

This topic provides information about backup and restore options.

Backup

For paid plans, encrypted database backups run daily, with each daily backup retained for 7 days by default.

Backups can be scheduled to run at a time of day that is most convenient for your business. The scheduled time may take up to 2 hours to take effect.

Self-service snapshot backups are supported. Users can manually trigger an on-demand backup or rely on automated scheduling. These are stored in Azure Blob Storage.

To help you plan for data protection and recovery, here are the key objectives we follow:

  • Recovery Point Objective (RPO):

    Snapshot backups are taken every 24 hours. This means that in the event of a failure, you could lose up to 24 hours of data changes.

  • Recovery Time Objective (RTO):

    The time it takes to restore data from a snapshot backup depends on how much data is stored. For the current generation of our system, the restore speed is approximately 1.5 TB per hour.

    For example:

    • Restoring 3 TB of data would take about 2 hours.
    • Restoring 6 TB would take about 4 hours.

The following is an example of the on-demand backup operation in the web console UI:

  1. Click Administration in the left menu and select the Backups tab. Click the Backups > Snapshot backup button.

    Figure 1. Backup and restore console page
    Backup and restore console page

  2. Click Run to run an on-demand backup.

    Figure 2. Run on-demand backup
    Backup and restore console page

  3. After backup completion, a new backup entry in the list of backups appears as a ondemand type. The new backup will be in an available state.

    Figure 3. Backup and restore console page
    Backup and restore console page
    Note: Azure allows a maximum of five backups per storage account within a 24-hour period. This limit applies to both on-demand and scheduled backups, meaning the combined total of all backup types cannot exceed five in any given 24-hour window.

Backup Retention Management

This feature allows users to run procedures that modify the retention period for snapshot backups.

While Db2® Warehouse SaaS BYOC supports retaining a large number of snapshots—effectively unlimited—you can reduce the number of retained snapshots to help manage storage costs.

Note: Changes to the backup retention period apply only to backups created after the change is made. Existing backups are retained based on the retention period that was in effect at the time they were created. Retention is duration-based, not count-based. For example, if the retention period is set to 7 days, each backup is retained for 7 days from its creation date, regardless of how many backups exist.

Snapshots are billed based on the total storage consumed. Retaining more snapshots increases your storage footprint and associated charges.

Tip: Best Practice: For most environments, retaining daily snapshots for the past seven to thirty days strikes a good balance between recovery flexibility and cost efficiency.
Attention: If your Db2 warehouse instance is shutdown, no new backups will be created. Additionally, previously taken backups will remain subject to their original retention policy. We recommend taking long-term backups before scaling down your instance to ensure data is preserved.

The backup process captures data stored on block storage volumes and cloud object storage. Each backup consists of:

  • Snapshots of block storage volumes, which preserve the state of the data at a specific point in time.
  • A backup of all data contained in the blob storage containers.
  • Associated metadata, required for recovery and integrity validation.

These components are stored in an Azure Blob Storage container within your designated storage account. This ensures durability, availability, and compliance with cloud storage best practices.

Attention: Backup storage usage is calculated based on the total size of the snapshots and metadata stored in Azure Blob Storage.

Restore

  1. Click Administration in the left menu and select the Backups tab. Select a backup that you want to restore to end-of-backup and click Restore.

    Figure 4. Backup and restore console page
    Backup and restore console page

  2. Click Restore to initiate the restore.

    Figure 5. Run restore
    Backup and restore console page

  3. An information message appears when the restore process has started. Some features might not be available until restore is completed.

  4. Notification will show a Restore success! message after the restore has completed.