Automatically Backup Multiple Databases to Your Own Storage – Guide

Managing five databases in an organization is one thing. However, managing 50 separate backup routines every day is another thing. Which, in short, is quite messy. If you’re trying to automatically backup multiple databases to your own storage, you shouldn’t have to create and monitor every backup job separately.

As the number of databases grows, keeping track of schedules, storage, retention, and failed backups can quickly become repetitive.

And depending on someone to keep remembering to run the backup job for each database seems like a huge task.

Most reliable way to backup a massive database
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That’s why making these workflows run automatically becomes more important than ever for any organization to run the business smoothly. So, automate database backups using a third-party tool and shift your focus to other important core things.

Why Is Backing Up & Managing Multiple Databases Difficult?

Suppose you manage 5 databases, 10 databases, multiple SQL Server instances, or different database engines, and different backup schedules as per the requirements for each database.

Eventually, it becomes quite daunting to manage them individually. Because of:

• Separate backup schedules as per the infrastructure
• Different storage requirements according to storage destination environments
• Increasing backup files after every database new updates
• Retention management
• Failed backup jobs
• Monitoring multiple jobs for multiple databases
• Restore planning for each database

One database backup is easy to keep track of. But when it becomes 10 or 100, then backup jobs can quickly become a spreadsheet you never wanted to maintain.

Can You Back Up Multiple Databases to Your Own Storage?

The straight answer is “Yes”.

With dedicated automated database backup software, you can select your own destination rather than being forced to use vendor-provided storage. Most of the tools offer various destinations like:

• Local drive
• External drive
• NAS
• Network folder
• SFTP/FTP
• Your own supported cloud account

These tools manage the entire backup process while your own storage holds the backup files. However, even if you are using your own storage, it doesn’t mean you have to manage every backup manually.

How to Automatically Backup Multiple Databases to Your Own Storage?

Before choosing any solution, make sure it has the features you need. In simple terms, it is better to look for multiple database connection availability, flexible scheduling, storage selection, retention management, compression, and encryption.

Prapl SQL Backup Tool is one of the tools that offers all these functionalities. It is useful for businesses managing different servers, as it offers 10+ server engines. Its single interface is much easier to manage. Also, Different databases may need different backup frequencies; that’s why one can schedule database backups as needed. In fact, it lets you select your own storage destination, so either save the database backup to a local machine, Amazon S3, an external hard drive, or any remote destination. The choice is yours.

If you are managing multiple databases, it can quickly generate a large number of backup files; therefore, this tool helps you to compress the backup files so they won’t eat up more storage space. Or encrypt them for more data protection. This tool also alerts you via email if the backup fails in between.

Steps to Backup Multiple DBs to Your Own Storage Automatically

Open the Prapl SQL Backup tool on your Windows PC, choose the database engine to backup, and tap Continue

Then, select multiple databases as needed, once the connection is done

Now choose storage destination. To save the backup file to your own storage, you can pick any available option.

Then, schedule the backup frequency to run the backup job automatically. Also, configure retention or enable encryption/compression. Then, hit the Save and Run Now button to begin the backup process.

Best Practices for Multiple Database Backups

There is a saying, the more, the merrier. But the more databases you manage, the more important it becomes to manage the backup job simultaneously, not just the backup files. Therefore, consider these factors before going further with any solution.

• Don’t keep the only backup data file beside the production database because corruption, hardware failure, or ransomware attacks can destroy the data.
• Use your own separate storage where possible while saving the data
• Create different scheduled jobs based on database importance for your business
• Set retention limits
• Monitor failed jobs to reduce the chance of data loss
• Test restores once the backup is done
• Encrypt sensitive backup files as they are practically the duplicate of the primary database
• Check storage capacity regularly before initiating the next backup job
• Make sure to review backup schedules when databases or workloads get updates

Conclusion

Let’s be honest, multiple databases don’t mean you need multiple backup routines to manage them manually.

If you want to automatically backup multiple databases to your own storage, it is much more feasible to go for a solution that supports your database environment, lets you select your desired storage destination, and gives you enough control over scheduling, retention, security, monitoring, and recovery.

And for doing all of the above jobs, the Prapl SQL Backup tool is worth considering. Download this tool for free on any Windows desktop and try its full functionality.