Understand the Backup job

The Backup job is used to execute the steps required to create a backup of the PI AF SQL Server database. By default the job runs a full backup of the PI AF SQL Server database, including the log file, placing the files in the default backup directory. However, you can assign values to the variables if you want to specify a different backup path (outpath) or change the full backup to a differential backup (alwaysfullbackup). For details on the backup command, refer to this Microsoft article, BACKUP (Transact-SQL).

In general, the PI AF SQL Server database backup should be stored on media other than the media that holds the PI AF SQL Server database and log files. This approach addresses redundancy issues. Another option is to make the backup on the same media, but have an external job that runs afterward that copies the backup file(s) to different media.

Note: Review Security requirements for SQL Server maintenance jobs for details on security requirements.