SaaS Data Backup and Disaster Recovery Plan

TL;DR: A disaster recovery plan ensures your SaaS survives data loss, corruption, or provider outages. This guide covers automated D1 backups to R2, point-in-time recovery strategies, backup integrity verification, and a runbook for restoration.

Introduction

Data loss isn't a matter of if, but when. A misconfigured migration, a bug that corrupts data, or a provider outage can destroy months of user data. A proper backup and disaster recovery plan is your insurance policy.

Automated Backups with Cron Triggers

// src/server/backup.ts
import { createServerFn } from '@tanstack/react-start'

export const runDatabaseBackupFn = createServerFn({ method: 'POST' })
  .handler(async ({ context }) => {
    const env = context.env
    const timestamp = new Date().toISOString()
    const backupKey = `backups/db/${timestamp}.sqlite`

    // Export D1 database
    const result = await env.DB.dump()
    
    // Store in R2
    await env.R2.put(backupKey, result.body, {
      customMetadata: { timestamp, type: 'full' },
    })

    // Clean up old backups (keep last 7 days)
    await cleanOldBackups(env.R2, 'backups/db/', 7)

    return { backupKey, timestamp }
  })

Backup Strategy Matrix

Conclusion

Automate your backups with Cloudflare Cron Triggers. Store in R2 for durability. Test your restore process monthly. A backup you haven't tested restoring from isn't a backup at all. For deeper context, see our Cloudflare R2 Object Storage Guide, D1 Production Guide, Cron Triggers documentation, and SaaS Security Best Practices.