Backup and replication: why they are not the same thing

[rychy]

Прочети на български

One of the most common operational mistakes is to treat replication as a backup. It is a convenient assumption, but a dangerous one.

Replication solves one class of problems. Backup solves another. If you do not have clear retention logic, a separate recovery plan and discipline about what you keep and for how long, replication on its own does not give you enough protection.

How we think about it

• backup is for restoring data and state
• replication is for copying and availability between roles or environments
• both have to be thought through with operational scenarios, not just with phrases like "there is a copy"

This topic is a starting point for more detailed, practically useful posts about snapshots, retention and reasonable expectations from a backup environment.

Related topics

• A backup without a restore test
• Retention policy
• Incremental versus full backup

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