Data Protection for Files, Databases, and Applications
Domain 3 - Data Protection for Files, Databases, and Applications
This domain tests agent-level knowledge: file system subclient design, database backup types and log handling, and application-consistent protection. Expect scenario questions about recovery models, log chains and pre/post processing.
Core rules
- File system agents use subclients with content paths, wildcards and filters. A full backup reads all content; an incremental reads changed data based on the agent's change tracking or scan, and a synthetic full assembles a new full from existing backups.
- SQL Server: transaction log backups require the database to be in Full or Bulk-Logged recovery model. A Simple recovery model database cannot produce log backups, so point-in-time restore is unavailable.
- A full database backup resets the differential base. Differential backups reference the last full; log backups form a continuous chain that must be restored in order up to the recovery point.
- Oracle protection runs through RMAN integration, with archive log backups needed for point-in-time recovery; RAC and Data Guard configurations need their own instance definitions.
- Application-consistent protection uses pre/post scripts or VSS quiescing so the backup reflects a clean state. For Exchange, SharePoint and SAP HANA, granular recovery depends on the relevant agent and index.
- IntelliSnap uses array or hypervisor snapshots as the backup source and then moves the snapshot to secondary storage via a backup copy.
Worked example
A SQL database must be recoverable to any point in the last 14 days. Confirm the database is in Full recovery model, schedule a weekly full, daily differentials and log backups every 15 minutes, and apply a retention that keeps the whole chain for 14 days. In a restore, select the full backup, apply the differential if desired, then replay logs up to the target time. If someone switched the database to Simple, log backups fail and the recoverable window collapses to the last full - the fix is switching back to Full and taking a new full before the next log job.
Traps that cost marks
- Believing a differential can be restored without its base full, or that logs run without a full.
- Forgetting that a full backup resets the differential base while the log chain continues.
- Expecting granular mailbox or document recovery from a snapshot-only backup with no index.
- Scheduling pre/post scripts on the wrong subclient, so quiescing never runs for the database being protected.