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Disaster Recovery and You: What You Don't Know Might
Cost You Money
By: Paul Wellons
In a typical
office, most people come in and turn on their computer,
and go to work. They do not think about it, they just
do it. Very little conscious thought is spent on the
many processes and equipment that must work together
correctly for the basic functionality of a workstation.
Any failure in the system could result in disrupted work
and loss of data, which means loss of income.
To help
prevent and minimize the down time and potential income
loss, planning for disaster recovery is essential.
Simply put, disaster recovery is the overall process
that a company needs to perform to return to normal
operation. Do not be mistaken, and think that recovery
is only what happens after you have had a disaster.
There is much you can do in order to minimize the
effects of network problems in the event of a disaster.
One way to
plan for disaster recovery is to use redundant hard
drives in a RAID configuration. One RAID configuration
allows a mirrored drive to replicate data to another
drive in case of failure.
One of the
most important steps to recovering from a disaster is to
have a reliable backup system. Backup systems consist
of two main components, backup hardware and backup
software. Tape drives are an industry standard for
creating and storing backup data. Almost all backup
software can utilize these drives effectively.
Tape drives
and tapes are a form of magnetic media similar to
cassette tapes. When using tape drives and media, it is
essential to clean the tape drive once a week. The
process is simple and utilizes a cleaning tape similar
to the ones used for tape decks. Tape media also
require at least a daily rotation. When the backup job
runs at night, it is typically set to eject the tape
when finished and then the next night’s tape can be put
in. Maintaining this rotation is essential to
performing a successful backup. If a tape is not loaded
before the scheduled backup, the job will not start and
no data will be backed up. If you are not careful, the
job could “hang” for several days and you could lose a
large amount of data.
The average
life span of a tape is approximately a year, with the
cleaning tape lasting anywhere from 30 uses up. Example
standard sizes are 10/20 and 20/40, with the first
number representing the largest amount of uncompressed
data and the second representing the largest amount of
compressed data. It is important to note, that not all
data is able to be compressed at the same ratio, so your
tape could max out at only 12 gigabytes even though it
is rated 10/20.
Another type
of backup hardware is the external hard drive, which is
an up and coming trend in backup technology. External
drives are self enclosed hard drives with an independent
power supply. The gigabyte capacity is only dependent
upon how much you want to pay for the hard drive. It is
not uncommon to find a 160 gigabyte external hard drive
for around $170 to $200, approximately $1 per gigabyte.
It is still necessary to rotate the external hard
drives, so cost can become an issue. It is recommended
that you rotate at least two hard drives, but more would
be optimal. One major bonus of using external hard
drives is that if you forget to rotate them, your backup
job will still run. However, this can also be a
disadvantage, if the data was fine the night before, but
was corrupted during the day. Again, establishing and
maintaining a backup media rotation is essential.
Once you
have selected your backup hardware, you must select the
software. The basic functions of the major software
packages are similar, but have some differences that
should be carefully weighed to determine which is most
suitable for your needs. Most software will back up to
a tape drive, but some may need upgrades or additional
modules to backup to external hard drives. Many of them
feature additional upgrades and modules, such as:
Open file
option: allow the back up of files that are in use when
the backup job runs. Typically open files are not
backed up.
E-Mail
agents: allows for direct backup from e-mail servers
such as Microsoft Exchange or Novell Groupwise servers.
SQL agents:
allow the backup of SQL database programs and data,
typically including a form of data file integrity checks
before and after the backup job runs.
Multi-server: allow the backup of multiple servers to a
single backup device.
Disaster
Recovery: optional module that creates bootable tapes
or CDs that will help automate the recovery process.
Even with a
properly configured backup system, there are additional
steps that you must take to be prepared for disaster
recovery. If all of the backups are stored on site and
there is a fire, flood, or other calamity that destroys
the building, more than likely your backups will be
ruined as well. That is why it is important to have a
safe, secure place a good distance away from the site to
store backups. It may be inconvenient, but potentially
could save weeks of downtime.
You must
also consider the time it takes to get parts in the case
of hardware failure. If you elect a less expensive
support contract with your hardware vendor, it could
significantly delay replacement part availability. What
normally could have been replaced in four hours could
take a day or more to ship. While many find it
impractical to keep extra servers just sitting around,
if one weighs the cost of a duplicate server, versus
lost billable time it may not be such a stretch. For
instance, if a single office with three employees can
bill a total of $300 an hour, but they are down for one
eight-hour day, they have potentially lost $2,400. That
could be the price of a second reserve server.
Major
disasters do not occur often, but the more common
day-to-day problems can be easily remedied with a good
backup plan. If a document is accidentally deleted or
becomes corrupted, simply restoring a copy from the most
recent backup can prevent the need for hours being spent
recreating it from scratch. Disaster recovery and having
a viable backup system in place is crucial for
businesses to avoid lost data and downtime. Something
as simple as a power surge or lightning strike, could
take out your computers or servers. Having the proper
equipment, backups, and planning can mean the difference
between unrecoverable loss and a temporary standstill.
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Paul Wellons
is a Network Engineer for Automated Horizons, a firm specializing
in information technology, legal technology, web design
and marketing.
Copyright © 2005 by Automated Horizons, Inc. All rights
reserved under U.S. and international law.
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