As previously stated, no matter what, you must always have a valid backup. A backup is protection for a company's most valuable asset, its data. Throughout the years, I have heard thousands of Halloween tales related to loss of data. Some good advice is listed next. The following is not a complete set of best practices, and the DBA should always make sure to have a tested backup/recovery procedure to be efficient and effective in restoring data, in case of failure.
Always check the backup output log.
The validity of a backup should never be taken for granted.
If possible, periodically use your backup to replicate the production environment on a test or development environment to verify it can be used to recover the production environment in case of failure.
Watch out for scheduled backups that are synchronized with other file processing routines. More than one backup has been rendered corrupt after a batch zip assumed it had ended at a specified pont in time. If the backup...