Go for it Kurt. If you have any questions please let me know. -----Original Message----- From: Kurt Buff [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Tuesday, 1 February 2011 3:44 AM To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: Re: Some thoughts for your DR Plan
This is a good write up - lots of lessons learned. As I've said, we have an office in Brisbane. I've never visited it, but I am in several senses responsible for the IT there, and it has always galled me that I haven't been able to do anything for them beyond sending an LTO4 tape unit and a few tapes to them - they ferry the tapes back and forth to the garage of one of the staff members on a weekly basis... Do I have your permission to show this to management here? I think it might prove a bit of an eye opener for them. Kurt On Sun, Jan 30, 2011 at 18:05, James Hill <[email protected]> wrote: > We now have the majority of things restored and up and running. Below > are just some initial thoughts and ideas that I wanted to share with the list. > It is in no way any form of DR plan nor is it meant to indicate what > we did or didn’t have. It’s simply my experiences from our recent DR > experience written down for the benefits of others. > > > > Some or none of this may apply to you. I certainly do not regard > myself as any form of DR expert nor am I the first to have been > through a real DR experience. However if I am able to provide any > info that can assist others than I am more than happy to do so. > > > > · Don’t ever think it can’t happen, it can. > > · You do need a DR location, a live one if possible. Convince > management of this! > > · Build redundancy into your designs of everything. Thanks to > this all our stores were able to continue to trade even though the > data centre was under water. > > · If you have something in your environment that isn’t in your > backup schedule, add it now, no matter how small it may be. > > · Consider that staff with specific duties in your DR plan may > not be able to assist as they are tending to their own personal issues > or physical access is simply not available. > > · Services you take for granted may simply be not available. > There were power outages (some for weeks) and communication network outages. > Phone systems quickly become overloaded in a Disaster, especially > mobile/cell networks. > > · Make allowance for the following in your DR location(for > relocation of office staff) > > o Furniture for staff > > o Computers and comms > > o Power, can the circuits handle the extra load you will be adding > to the site? > > o Bandwidth > > o Air conditioning/heating > > · Have remote visibility of your data centre and its > surroundings > > o A camera or two would have shown us the level of the water and we > could have saved much more equipment. > > · Add sensors to your data centre that shuts off the power if > water is detected. > > · Exchange cached mode and offline files provide quick access > to much critical information. > > · Keep critical infrastructure/server build/networking > documentation in multiple places. > > o I had a recent backup at my personal residence. It was > invaluable in the early stages of our Recovery. > > · Data restores > > o Do test restores regularly. Environments change all the time and > maybe something hasn’t been added to the backup list for that server. > > o Ensure that you can retrieve critical data quickly. Restores > take time. > > o Tapes – do anything to avoid them, if you have to use them have > multiple tape drives available so that restores can be conducted more > quickly. > > o Have backup backup servers. Especially with the tape catalogues > available. We saw cataloguing of tapes take 14 hours plus. > > o Have an offsite location authorised as a delivery point with your > Offsite Tape holder. > > · Check your emotions at the door. Remain calm and logical, > consider others needs. The people that are true leaders(that doesn’t > necessarily mean all Managers) should be running the show. Everyone > else will be looking to them for guidance. > > > > · Fire and water make fantastic servants, they are horrible masters. > > > > James. > > > > > > ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ > <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ > > --- > To manage subscriptions click here: > http://lyris.sunbelt-software.com/read/my_forums/ > or send an email to [email protected] > with the body: unsubscribe ntsysadmin ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ --- To manage subscriptions click here: http://lyris.sunbelt-software.com/read/my_forums/ or send an email to [email protected] with the body: unsubscribe ntsysadmin ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ --- To manage subscriptions click here: http://lyris.sunbelt-software.com/read/my_forums/ or send an email to [email protected] with the body: unsubscribe ntsysadmin
