The strategy you choose really depends on your application and your data. [...] Since I can't possibly cover everything between those extremes in one post, I'll aim for something in the middle. Like a blog, perhaps. In other words, I'll address the scenario in which I don't want to lose data, but I'm not willing to go to extremes to preserve it.

The post is largely SQL Server related - mostly for the BACKUP and RESTORE - but it gives you a good idea of how to make a full backup, take a snapshot of your logs and restoring that information back up just in case.

Since the previous posting, I have added a backup/restore mechanism for static attributes of classes to PHPUnit. This is yet another feature of PHPUnit that makes the testing of code that uses global state (which includes, but is not limited to, global and superglobal variables as well as static attributes of classes) easier.

Two graphs illustrate the difference - one showing a normal run and another with this new feature in use and showing off the performance increase it can give.