disaster recovery planning

IT:Network:Applications10-150-188

What is the worst that could happen?◦ It will

When is the worst time that could happen?◦ That’s when it will

What can we do to prevent it? What can we do to recover from it?

Physical◦ Fire Suppression◦ Floods?◦ Who’s there?

File System◦ Rights/Permissions◦ NTFS vs Share

Authentication◦ Password required◦ Change passwords

How are we configured?◦ At a minimum◦ Step by step system procedures from building a

server to making a folder Hardware (Bios settings)

◦ What is required to get a system restored OS

◦ Version; License Numbers; Administrator Password;◦ IP Addr; Services Installed; Services Config

Helps to check configuration Helps to rebuild if needed

Security Updates as soon as feasible Service Packs

◦ When your third party software blesses it◦ Some software packages can be 6 months behind

Driver Updates ?◦ If it ain’t broke…well, test

BIOS Updates ?◦ See above

Optional Updates ? Use Test Machine(s) / Lab

“It isn’t if the hard drive will fail, it’s when will the hard drive fail.”

User “oops” or PEBKAC◦ Accident◦ Intentional◦ 95% of data loss comes from inside

Full backup is always best◦ Incremental◦ Differential◦ Both handle a file based on the archive bit status

Tape Rotation◦ Grandfather – Father – Son (GFS)

G: Monthly full; F: Weekly full; S: Daily

◦ Others available: (e.g., Tower of Hanoi) Think powers of 2 setA every two days; setB every 4 days; setC every

8…

M T W H F

1 2 3 4 F:5

1 2 3 4 F:6

1 2 3 4 F:7

1 2 3 4 G:8

Daily backups◦ Should keep the previous backup off-site◦ Rotate off-site daily◦ Quick and easy to restore◦ Full backup can be rotated every two weeks at a

minimum. FridayA is offsite until FridayB is run

Weekly/Monthly◦ Kept as long as “needed”◦ Keep secured

Theft

Larger companies outsource backup storage Third party companies offering remote

backup services (cloud-ish data backup)

Windows Server 2008 R2 does not support tape devices

Backups are trending towards disk to disk backups

System imaging is gaining popularity Can backup to file or to a remote system

Doesn’t need to be fancy◦ Microsoft Backup works

GUI is easy to use◦ Command line options—

Wbadmin.exe Wbadmin.exe START RECOVERY –

version:09/30/2010-18:30 –items:d:\common –itemtype:File –backupTarget:E: -recursive

You get what you pay for◦ Symantec Backup Exec◦ Backup Assist◦ Storageworks