Jon LaBadie wrote: > The second part can only be done by actually doing restores. > Perhaps you could schedule periodic recoveries of files > or directory trees. Do some sort of varying selection of > clients, tapes, and data to recover. Maybe even a regular > "the chips are down" disaster exercise.
I would absolutely agree with Jon. You simply cannot be "sure" or "guarantee," but you can attain a level of confidence -- statistical sampling and testing if you want to get formal about it. After installing a new backup system, the first thing after backup should be to test recovery. Then, periodically pull a tape at random and test recovery. Experience and confidence are common terms, but you can also estimate probabilities of future success or failure based on the data if you really want to dig into it. The other side of this is your own personal experience and confidence. When "the chips are down", you can say, "Ah, I've done that a bunch of times. I'm confident I can do it now." You need both of those in the common sense. If your bosses were to really push you on the "sure" and "guarantee", you could go over to the stat lab and ask someone to draw up some equations so you could hand them back some probabilities. Could get messy if you try to account for aging. --------------- Chris Hoogendyk - O__ ---- Systems Administrator c/ /'_ --- Biology & Geology Departments (*) \(*) -- 140 Morrill Science Center ~~~~~~~~~~ - University of Massachusetts, Amherst <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------- Erdös 4
