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The following two sentences make sense; the first is where there's one system with one or more associated databases, the second is where there's multiple systems with one or more databases:

Backup the system's database(s).

Backup the systems' database(s).

What convention should be used when there may be multiple systems? e.g.

Backup the system((')s(')) database(s).
JohnLBevan
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    Try this link-:http://english.blogoverflow.com/2012/11/much-ado-about-possessive-apostrophes/ – Argot Jan 20 '14 at 11:34
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    @Argot There's even a blogoverflow? – Kris Jan 20 '14 at 13:49
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    Ans: Backup the systems'* databases.* No confusion. By the way, never use databases(s) -- there's no such thing. – Kris Jan 20 '14 at 13:51
  • @Kris: It does cause confusion when there are multiple systems but only one database (I find it hard to envisage but it's part of the question). – Tim Lymington Jan 20 '14 at 14:29
  • @Kris; sorry, that was a typo on my part; corrected. – JohnLBevan Jan 20 '14 at 16:57
  • @TimLymington; good point for the second example there probably would always be multiple databases given there are multiple systems; though I such things can exists (e.g. transactional system and data warehouse which uses the transactional system's db as the source of ETL could be a common scenario where two systems could be said to share the same database). – JohnLBevan Jan 20 '14 at 17:01
  • @Argot; thanks for the link; useful stuff though I couldn't find anything on parenthetical plurals. – JohnLBevan Jan 20 '14 at 17:04
  • Backup the system's(s')databases. Source: https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/389421/use-of-parentheses-to-include-both-singular-and-or-plural-possessive – Antonia Lederhos Chandler May 18 '17 at 03:32

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Consider rewriting to eliminate the problem:

Backup the system database(s).

If this isn't possible, I would probably go with systems', plural. If you're worried about readers being excessively literal (which can happen with technical documentation, unfortunately), you can add clarifying language elsewhere, perhaps in a footnote.

phenry
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