What should an admin do to ensure a smooth backup process?

Ensuring a smooth backup process is critical for maintaining data integrity and system reliability. Stopping all services before conducting backups allows for a consistent and stable state of the system, preventing any changes or transactions from occurring while the backup is being created. This practice minimizes the risk of backing up incomplete or corrupted data, which could lead to issues when restoring.

In contrast, certain practices, such as running backups during off-peak hours, can help limit the impact on performance but do not provide the same guarantees of data consistency as stopping services. While using the latest server version is essential for security and functionality, it does not directly affect the backup procedure itself. Performing backups on a local machine may not always be advisable, as it can lead to data loss if that machine fails without redundancy or proper backup management. Therefore, stopping all services before a backup is the most reliable step for ensuring that the backup process is seamless and effective.