Son
Daily backups
- Frequency
- Every 24 hours.
- Retention
- Keeps the last 7 days.
- Purpose
- Fast recovery from mistakes made today or yesterday.
Backup strategy
Daily, weekly and monthly backups with GFS distribution
A good backup policy is not about keeping random copies. It is about keeping the right version for the right amount of time so you can recover quickly, investigate incidents and protect critical data.
7 days
fast recovery
4 weeks
recent history
4 months
monthly archive
The ideal distribution
Grandfather, Father, Son: three layers for different recovery windows
The GFS strategy combines frequent short-term backups with older recovery points. You can go back to yesterday when someone made a mistake, to last week when a hidden issue appears, or to a previous month for audit or deep recovery needs.
Father
Weekly backups
- Frequency
- Once a week, for example every Sunday.
- Retention
- Keeps the last 4 weeks.
- Purpose
- Return to an earlier state if you discover an issue that has been hidden for several days.
Grandfather
Monthly backups
- Frequency
- On the first day of each month.
- Retention
- Keeps the last 4 months.
- Purpose
- Legal compliance, auditing or recovery after major data corruption that was not detected in time.
Time coverage
Every copy has a mission
This distribution avoids relying on a single recovery window. Daily backups solve immediate incidents, weekly backups provide room for investigation and monthly backups protect long-range scenarios.
Today
Fast restore if a file is deleted or an update breaks something.
Week
Stable point when an error is detected several days later.
Month
Archive reference for auditing, compliance and deep recovery.
Use cases
Why a recent backup is not enough
Human mistakes
Revert accidental changes in content, database or configuration.
Hidden failures
Return to a healthy point when the problem was not detected immediately.
Audit and compliance
Keep monthly points to review previous states and meet internal or legal requirements.
Data protection
Let us design the right backup policy for your project
Airbip can help define retention, frequency and priorities based on application type, data volume and business criticality.