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Eptura Knowledge Center

Hippo Compliance- Database Backups

A backup of your Hippo Database is created by SQL Database and uses Azure read-access geo-redundant storage (RA-GRS) to provide geo-redundancy. These backups are created automatically and at no additional charge. Database backups are an essential part of any business continuity and disaster recovery strategy because they protect your data from accidental corruption or deletion.

What is a SQL Database backup?

SQL Database uses SQL Server technology to create full, differential, and transaction log backups for the purposes of Point-in-time restore (PITR). The transaction log backups generally happen every 5 - 10 minutes, with the frequency based on the performance level and amount of database activity. Transaction log backups, with full and differential backups, allows Hippo to restore your database to a specific point-in-time to the same server that hosts the database. When the database is restored, the service figures out which full, differential, and transaction log backups need to be restored.

These backups are used to:

  • Restore a database to a point-in-time within the retention period. This operation will create a new database in the same server as the original database.
  • Restore a deleted database to the time it was deleted or any time within the retention period. The deleted database can only be restored in the same server where the original database was created.
  • Restore a database to another geographical region. This allows recovery from a geographic disaster when you cannot access your server and database. It creates a new database in any existing server anywhere in the world.
  • Restore a database from a specific long-term backup if the database has been configured with a long-term retention policy. This allows Hippo to restore an old version of the database to satisfy a compliance request or to run an old version of the application.

How often do backups happen?

Full database backups happen weekly, differential database backups generally happen every few hours, and transaction log backups generally happen every 5 - 10 minutes. The first full backup is scheduled immediately after a database is created. It usually completes within 30 minutes, but it can take longer when the database is of significant size. For example, the initial backup can take longer on a restored database or a database copy. After the first full backup, all further backups are scheduled automatically and managed silently in the background. The exact timing of all database backups is determined by the SQL Database service as it balances the overall system workload.

The backup storage geo-replication occurs based on the Azure Storage replication schedule.

How long does Hippo keep your backups?

The retention period for your database is 35 days.

Are backups encrypted?

Transparent Data Encryption is enabled for all Hippo databases, which also encrypts the backups. Transparent data encryption performs real-time encryption and decryption of the database, associated backups, and transaction log files at rest without requiring changes to the application. All new Hippo databases are configured with TDE enabled by default.