Anyone whose ever had to rebuild a server just from tapes might agree

[Robert Brockway]

On Wed, 31 Dec 2003, Teddy Mills wrote:

> I dont like backups onto CDs or any tape formats.  Be it helical, travan or

I'm ok with CDs as long as they are checked (like anything I guess).
Their big problem (IMHO) is capacity.

> whatever.

Travans - I've seen some interesting experiences there.  I now avoid them.

> Backing up just data is fine and reliable.  But systems are a NOS and data.
> NOS being the operating system and all the installed programs running.

We work on the assumption of full system recovery in as short a time as
possible (mainly looking at a business perspective here).  For this it is
necessary to backup everything.  It takes far too long to reinstall all
the boxes and configure their apps, etc.  I want the speed of the storage
device to be the limiting factor.

> 1. Getting a true backup of a system onto tape is often difficult due to
> open files of the OS and various(important)  data and programs.

I've had surprisingly few problems here.  True, having a file open can
be a problem, but with nightly backups it tends to be that the same files
are not open from night to night.

If someone was really worried about this, I'd be worth taking a system to
single user mode periodically and doing a full (rather than incremental)
backup in this state.  This is not something I've found a particular need
for.

Nost systems are backuped when they are relatively idle.  If a system was
active 24/7 it would be worth looking at snapshotting data and taking the
backups from there.

> 2. If the system crashes, restoring a system entirely from tape is equally
> as difficult. On servers with real data. I will never make that mistake
> agan. Anyone whose ever had to rebuild a server just from tapes might agree.

This is where DR (Disaster Recovery) testing comes in.  If there is a
problem with the DR plan (and there often is) run a live DR test and find
out before you have to do it for real.

Live DR testing is timeconsuming and thus company accountants and managers
may be tempted to cut corners (seeing the time translate into a monetary
cost).  Insist on a proper DR test and detail why it is needed.

With the reliance on information resources in todays companies, few things
as a important as a properly tested DR plan but impressing this on the
management in many companies has been a slow process.

It has been said that management in many companies are getting more
"Information Wise" but I won't consider them information wise until they
are "DR Wise" :)

Have a good NYE and don't stop partying just because some of us are sick
:)

Cheers,
	Rob

-- 
Robert Brockway
Senior Technical Consultant, OpenTrend Solutions Ltd.
Phone: 416-669-3073, Email: rbrockway-wgAaPJgzrDxH4x6Dk/4f9A at public.gmane.org, http://www.opentrend.net
OpenTrend Solutions: Reliable, secure solutions to real world problems.
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