We've created a non-production environment for SQL Server.
This environment uses the SQL Server Always-On Availability Groups as a HA-solution.
To work with SQL Server AG's you have to set the recovery model to full so the log can be synced with the other replicas, but setting the recovery model to full also implies that the log keeps on growing if you don't take backups.
Since this is a non-production environment we're not that interested in the backups of these databases.
What do you guys think is the best way to go in this environment?
- Create backups to disk and delete them
- Do take backups of this environment
- Other suggestions…
Best Answer
Why not just back up the database once a week and the log every n minutes (a good balance of frequency and keeping the log in check), and have a sweeper job delete new files as they come in (or after some age)? The nice thing about this is that if you decide at some point that backups in this environment actually are important, which you might, it is just a matter of disabling the sweeper job (or changing how often it runs / what it actually does).