Databases Beginner

What is Database Backup?

The process of creating copies of database data to protect against data loss from failures, corruption, or human error.

Backup strategies include logical backups (pg_dump — SQL statements to recreate data), physical backups (file-level copies of data directory), and continuous archiving (WAL shipping for point-in-time recovery).

The 3-2-1 rule: 3 copies of data, on 2 different media types, with 1 offsite copy. Test restores regularly — an untested backup is not a backup. Automate backups with cron and monitor for failures. Cloud providers offer managed backup solutions.

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Related Terms

A category of databases that store data in non-tabular formats, optimized for specific data models and access patterns.

Window Function

An SQL function that performs calculations across a set of rows related to the current row without collapsing the result set.

Materialized View

A database object that stores the precomputed result of a query, offering faster reads at the cost of periodic refresh.

A database object that enables row-by-row processing of query results, useful for operations that cannot be done in bulk.

EXPLAIN ANALYZE

A PostgreSQL command that shows the execution plan of a query along with actual runtime statistics for performance tuning.

An open-source, in-memory data store used as a database, cache, message broker, and queue with sub-millisecond response times.

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