What does archiving primarily involve?

Archiving primarily involves selectively removing records for long-term storage. This process is essential for maintaining the performance and manageability of active databases. By transferring less frequently accessed or historical data into an archive, the active database can operate more efficiently without being cluttered by outdated information.

Archiving allows organizations to retain important data in a structured manner, ensuring that it remains accessible when needed while also freeing up resources in the primary database for current operations. This approach balances the need to keep certain records available for regulatory, compliance, or historical analysis with the practicalities of database performance and storage costs.

The other options do not accurately reflect the principles of archiving. For instance, deleting records from active databases is not the same as archiving, as this would mean permanently discarding information instead of preserving it for future use. Storing all records indefinitely would contradict the idea of selective removal for efficiency and practicality. Lastly, backing up data on a second server refers to data redundancy and recovery rather than the systematic separation of data for archival purposes.