• You must use COPY_ONLY when backing up a database on a secondary server. When backing up a database on the primary you can run a regular backup, or a COPY_ONLY backup. As to the transaction logs for system databases, not all system databases have transaction logs, and no, in general, they don't need to be backed up. For system databases I usually just run full backups.

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    SQL Server Execution Plans
    SQL Server Query Performance Tuning