Last week a client (a multinational corporation) contacted us with the following request:
[...]
I would like to determine optimal time for backing-up our databases.
The problem the client was facing was that his users were connecting from different continents and different time zones. So the usual “best practice” of backing-up databases during night could not be applied in this case.
The solution for this problem was really simple. Terminal Services Log was already installed, so we analyzed the gathered data and here are the results. The first step was to analyze weekl activities and to determine weekdays when the server was least used.
As shown in the picture above, the server is least used on Tuesdays and Wednesdays (due to the nature of business this company does on weekends). Daily activity report revealed that the optimal time for backup is 1AM – 6AM (GMT).
Our reports clearly show that the best time for performing backups, so in case this customer needed to plan a day or two for weekly backups he should probably choose Tuesday or Wednesday night when this farm is least used.
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