What is a Recovery Model?

A recovery model is a database property that controls the basic behavior of the backup and restores operations for a database. Recovery models determine how transactions are logged, which logs require backups and the kinds of restore operations available to the DBA. A new database inherits its recovery model from the model database. Recovery models simplify recovery planning, backup and recovery procedures, clarify tradeoff among system operational requirements and clarify tradeoffs among availability and recovery requirements.