2506 Backups And Restore
Backups and Restore in Tadabase
Introduction to Data Backups
Data loss can destroy a business overnight. Whether from user error, system failure, malicious action, or natural disaster, losing critical business data is catastrophic. Backups are your insurance policy—they're not optional, they're essential.
This article teaches you how to protect your data with regular backups, test your ability to restore, and implement best practices that ensure business continuity no matter what happens.
Why Backups Are Critical
Understand the real risks of data loss.
Common Causes of Data Loss
- User Error – Accidental deletion, incorrect batch updates
- Malicious Actions – Disgruntled employees, security breaches
- Software Bugs – Application errors corrupting data
- Failed Migrations – Import/export errors, integration failures
- Infrastructure Issues – Rare but possible platform problems
Real-World Scenarios
Scenario 1: Batch Delete Gone Wrong
A user applies wrong filter and deletes 5,000 active customer records instead of test records. Without backup, all customer history is permanently lost. With backup, restore in 30 minutes.
Scenario 2: Bad Import
An import overwrites correct prices with zeros for 3,000 products. Customers see $0.00 prices. Site must close immediately. With last night's backup, restore pricing and resume business.
Scenario 3: Security Breach
Compromised credentials used to corrupt data. Tables filled with junk data. Without backup, months of work lost. With backup, restore to point before breach.
Business Impact
Data loss consequences:
- Revenue Loss – Business stops until data restored
- Customer Loss – Customers leave if you lose their data
- Reputation Damage – Word spreads about data loss incidents
- Legal Issues – Compliance violations, contract breaches
- Employee Impact – Lost work, lowered morale
Tadabase Backup System
Tadabase provides built-in backup and restore capabilities.
Automatic Platform Backups
Tadabase automatically:
- Creates daily backups of all data
- Maintains multiple backup points
- Stores backups securely off-site
- Protects against infrastructure failures
These platform backups:
- Run automatically without user action
- Provide disaster recovery capability
- Require support team assistance to restore
- Are last-resort protection
Application-Level Backups
More practical for day-to-day needs:
- Create backups on-demand
- Restore directly from Builder
- Control timing and frequency
- Immediate access when needed
Staged Backups
Tadabase's staged backup feature:
- Creates complete application snapshot
- Includes structure and data
- Allows restore to specific point in time
- Available on Professional plan and above
Creating Manual Backups
Take control of your backup schedule.
When to Create Backups
Create backups:
- Before Major Changes – Large imports, batch updates, deletions
- Before Migrations – Moving data, restructuring tables
- Before Development – Major feature additions, workflow changes
- On Schedule – Daily, weekly, or monthly depending on data volume
- Before Production – Deploying new version of application
Method 1: Staged Backup
Create complete application snapshot:
Creating Staged Backup
- In Builder, go to Settings > Backup & Restore
- Click "Create Staged Backup"
- Enter descriptive name (e.g., "Before March 2024 Price Update")
- Add notes about what this backup represents
- Click Create
- Wait for backup to complete (minutes to hours depending on size)
What Staged Backup Includes
Complete snapshot:
- All data table structures
- All record data
- All pages and components
- All rules and workflows
- All settings and configurations
- File attachments
Method 2: Data Export Backup
Export table data for simpler backups:
Single Table Backup
Multi-Table Backup
For entire application:
- Export each critical table
- Save all exports in dated folder
- Include relationship documentation
- Store securely off-site
Advantages of Export Backups
- Lightweight – Smaller file sizes
- Portable – Use in other systems
- Flexible – Can restore selectively
- External Storage – Store anywhere you want
Disadvantages
- Data Only – Doesn't include structure or pages
- Manual Process – Must export each table
- Relationships – Connection fields require careful handling
- Files – Attached files not included
Method 3: Automated Export Backups
Schedule regular data exports:
Create Backup Scheduled Task
- For each critical table, create scheduled task
- Name: "Nightly Backup - Customers"
- Schedule: Daily at 2:00 AM
- Action: Export Records (all fields, JSON format)
- Delivery: Email to backup address or save to storage
- Activate task
Backup Naming Convention
Use dynamic file names:
- Include date: "customers_{today}.json"
- Include time if multiple per day
- Consistent format for easy identification
- Example: "customers_2024-03-15.json"
Backup Strategy
Implement comprehensive backup plan.
3-2-1 Backup Rule
Industry best practice:
- 3 Copies – Keep three copies of data (original + 2 backups)
- 2 Different Media – Store on two different types of storage
- 1 Off-Site – Keep one copy off-site (cloud or different location)
Backup Frequency
Determine based on data change rate:
High-Volume Applications:
- Hourly or every few hours
- Examples: E-commerce, booking systems
- Can't afford to lose more than few hours of data
Moderate Volume:
- Daily backups (nightly)
- Examples: CRM, project management
- Acceptable to lose one day's changes
Low Volume:
- Weekly backups
- Examples: Reference databases, archives
- Data changes infrequently
Backup Retention
How long to keep backups:
Short-Term (30 days)
- Daily backups
- Quick recovery from recent issues
- Covers most user errors
Medium-Term (90 days)
- Weekly backups
- Covers delayed discovery of issues
- Regulatory requirements
Long-Term (1-7 years)
- Monthly or quarterly backups
- Compliance requirements
- Historical reference
- Legal holds
Backup Rotation
Grandfather-Father-Son (GFS) rotation:
- Daily – Keep 7 daily backups (Son)
- Weekly – Keep 4 weekly backups (Father)
- Monthly – Keep 12 monthly backups (Grandfather)
- Yearly – Keep for compliance period
Restoring from Backups
Know how to recover when disaster strikes.
Restoring Staged Backup
Complete application restore:
Restore Process
- In Builder, go to Settings > Backup & Restore
- View list of available staged backups
- Select backup to restore
- Review backup details and date
- Click "Restore"
- WARNING: This replaces ALL current data
- Confirm restoration
- Wait for restore to complete
- Verify data restored correctly
Important Warnings
- Restoring Overwrites Current Data – All changes since backup are lost
- Cannot Undo Restore – Create current backup before restoring old one
- Users Should Be Logged Out – Avoid active use during restore
- May Take Time – Large applications take longer to restore
Restoring from Exports
Selective data restoration:
Full Table Restore
To restore entire table:
- Export current table (safety backup)
- Delete all current records (or use restore mode in import)
- Import backup file
- Choose "Create New Records"
- Map fields
- Execute import
- Verify record count and sample data
Selective Restore
To restore specific records:
- Open backup export file
- Filter to only records needing restoration
- Save filtered file
- Import with "Update Existing Records"
- Match on Record ID
- Only selected records restored
Partial Field Restore
To restore only specific fields:
- Open backup file
- Keep only Record ID and fields to restore
- Import with "Update Existing Records"
- Map only fields being restored
- Other fields remain unchanged
Recovery Time Objective (RTO)
How quickly can you restore?
Measure RTO:
- Time to identify issue
- Time to access backups
- Time to restore data
- Time to verify restoration
- Time to resume operations
Target RTO:
- Critical Systems: < 1 hour
- Important Systems: < 4 hours
- Standard Systems: < 24 hours
Recovery Point Objective (RPO)
How much data loss is acceptable?
RPO Determines Backup Frequency:
- RPO 1 hour: Hourly backups needed
- RPO 1 day: Daily backups sufficient
- RPO 1 week: Weekly backups acceptable
Testing Backups
Backups are useless if you can't restore from them.
Why Test Backups
Common backup failures:
- Backup files corrupted
- Backup incomplete (missing tables)
- Restore process takes too long
- Team doesn't know how to restore
- Backup stored inaccessibly
An untested backup is not a backup—it's a hope.
Backup Testing Schedule
Test regularly:
- Monthly: Restore sample table from backup
- Quarterly: Full restore to test environment
- Annually: Complete disaster recovery drill
- After Changes: Test after backup process changes
Test Restore Procedure
Quarterly test:
- Create test/sandbox application
- Restore backup to test environment
- Verify all tables present
- Check record counts match
- Spot check data accuracy
- Test key functionality
- Measure time taken
- Document any issues
- Update procedures if needed
Disaster Recovery Drill
Annual full test:
- Simulate complete data loss
- Follow disaster recovery plan
- Restore from backups
- Involve entire team
- Document time and issues
- Update disaster recovery plan
- Train new team members
Backup Security
Protect your backups as carefully as your production data.
Backup Access Control
Limit who can:
- Create backups: Data stewards only
- Access backups: Authorized personnel only
- Restore data: Senior admins only
- Delete backups: Very restricted
Backup Encryption
If backups contain sensitive data:
- Encrypt backup files
- Use strong encryption (AES-256)
- Protect encryption keys separately
- Document encryption method
Backup Storage Security
Secure storage locations:
- Use secure cloud storage (encrypted)
- Multi-factor authentication required
- Audit access to backup storage
- Separate from production credentials
- Regular security reviews
Ransomware Protection
Protect backups from ransomware:
- Store offline or immutable copies
- Use write-once-read-many (WORM) storage
- Keep backups on separate systems
- Don't map backup drives permanently
- Version backups (can't overwrite old ones)
Best Practices
Follow these principles for reliable backups.
Automate Backups
- Never rely on manual backups alone
- Schedule automated backups
- Verify backups completed successfully
- Alert if backup fails
Backup Before Changes
- Always backup before batch operations
- Backup before major imports
- Backup before structural changes
- Backup before production deployments
Document Procedures
- Maintain clear documentation
- Step-by-step restore instructions
- Contact information for emergencies
- Backup location and access details
- Keep documentation accessible offline
Monitor Backup Health
- Regularly verify backups running
- Check backup file sizes (consistent?)
- Review backup logs for errors
- Alert on backup failures
- Dashboard showing backup status
Multiple Backup Methods
- Don't rely on one method
- Use staged backups AND exports
- Store in multiple locations
- Different backup frequencies
- Redundancy prevents single point of failure
Disaster Recovery Plan
Prepare for worst-case scenarios.
Components of DR Plan
Comprehensive plan includes:
- Risk Assessment – What could go wrong?
- Recovery Objectives – RTO and RPO defined
- Backup Strategy – What, when, where
- Restore Procedures – Step-by-step instructions
- Communication Plan – Who to notify, when
- Testing Schedule – Regular drills
- Roles and Responsibilities – Who does what
Disaster Recovery Team
Assign roles:
- DR Leader: Coordinates recovery efforts
- Technical Lead: Executes restore procedures
- Communication Lead: Updates stakeholders
- Testing Lead: Verifies restoration
- Documentation Lead: Records actions taken
Incident Response Process
When disaster strikes:
- Detect: Identify data loss occurred
- Assess: Determine scope and impact
- Activate DR Plan: Notify team, begin procedures
- Restore: Execute restore from backups
- Verify: Confirm data integrity
- Resume Operations: Return to normal
- Post-Mortem: Analyze what happened, improve
Practical Exercise
Implement complete backup and recovery system.
Exercise: Backup & Recovery System
Scenario: Implement comprehensive backup system for customer application.
Step 1: Create Staged Backup
- In your application, go to Settings > Backup & Restore
- Create staged backup
- Name: "Exercise Baseline Backup"
- Wait for completion
- Verify backup appears in list
Step 2: Setup Automated Export Backups
- For Customers table, create scheduled task
- Name: "Daily Customer Backup"
- Schedule: Daily at 2 AM
- Action: Export all records (JSON format)
- Email backup file to your email
- Test by manually running task
- Verify email received with attachment
Step 3: Test Restore Process
- Create test data: Add 5 new customer records
- Note their record IDs and names
- Delete these 5 records
- Now restore from backup
- Verify records are back
Step 4: Create Backup Documentation
- Document: - Backup schedule - Backup locations - Restore procedures - Emergency contacts - RTO and RPO
- Share with team
Step 5: Simulate Disaster
- Disaster scenario: Major batch update goes wrong
- Manually corrupt some customer data
- Follow your restore procedures
- Restore from staged backup
- Measure time taken
- Document lessons learned
Step 6: Create Monitoring Dashboard
- Create page showing: - Last backup date/time - Backup file sizes - Scheduled task status - Quick restore button
- Review dashboard regularly
Next Steps
You now understand backup and restore in Tadabase. You can create manual and automated backups, restore from various backup types, implement backup strategies, and create disaster recovery plans.
In the next article, you'll learn about advanced data structures—building many-to-many relationships, junction tables, and complex hierarchical structures.
Next: Continue to Advanced Data Structures to learn complex relationship patterns.
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