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[B73]Backup And Disaster Recovery

by Mike Walton, Mik

For any business large or small there needs to be some sort of backup system to protect your information. Information can be anything from contact information to record keeping to actually information based products. Backing up information and preparing for a disaster can be done in many different ways but as long as you reach the same goal of protecting your information.

You can use a variety of programs to backup information, from the windows backup utility, to 3rd party software, to open source or free utilities, to even on line services now for very cheap. But a few things should be consistent across the board about creating a backup plan.

1. Backups should be done consistently
2. Backups should be done at the very least everyday
3. Full backups should be done at least once a month if not every week
4. The backup plan should be reviewed frequently to make sure that every important is still being backed up
5. Test restores should be preformed frequently to find any problems in your backup program before it is to late.

Now as for a retention plan, one of the biggest things that companies do is keep their backups on a tape in the server or in the server room. If you are not using an on line backup system a copy of your backup should be taken to an off site location at least once a month. This way should a natural disaster happen you still have a backup of your files that at worst will be a month old. This method also gives you the opportunity to recover a file that has been missing but has gone unnoticed for up to a month.

Now there are four different types of backups, full backup, incremental backup, differential backup, and continuous backup. To understand how all of these different types of backups work you need to know about the archive bit. The archive bit is a setting on all files that will tell backup software whether it has been changed or not. Whenever a file is change the archive bit is set.

Full backups are just that they backup everything regardless of whether is has changed or not and it will clear the archive bit from all the files. Incremental backups will first make a full backup which will clear the archive bit and then everyday it will check all files for the archive bit. Any files that now have the archive bit set, meaning they have been change, will be backed up and the archive bit will be cleared. So with an incremental backup if you need to restore a folder that is on tape you will need the full backup tape and every incremental tape since then to restore.

Differential backups are similar except they don't reset the archive bit, first a full backup is taken and all the archive bits are cleared. Then every day a differential backup is run where if the archive bit has been set the file is then backed up but the archive bit is NOT cleared. So through out the week the differential backup will be backing up more and more files until we do a full backup again. The advantage of a differential backup is that if we need to restore a folder we will only need the full backup tape and the last differential tape that was done to restore and entire folder.

For smaller businesses I would recommend going to an on line backup system because it will totally alleviate most of the headache in purchasing backup software and configuring it yourself. IDrive is one of these on line backup companies that allows you to download their client program and then use their continuous backup system. IDrive will also give you 2 gigs of free space, so if what you are backing up is less then 2 gigs you can get the service for free. KeepIt.com is yet another one of these systems that provides on line backup so you don't have to worry about changing tapes or moving information to an off site location. On line backups do it all for you.

For larger enterprise businesses I would recommend some form of tape backup such as BriteStor from ArcServe which provides a very flexible backup software along with a tape drive that can store more data than you would ever want and with no monthly charge. But programs such as BiteStor require quite a bit of setup time from an IT specialist and quite a bit of maintenance to make sure

Whether a company relies heavily on database activity for critical everyday business operations or only for select requirements, the loss of data due to technological failure can have far reaching negative implications. The loss of valuable information and records can cause productivity setbacks, lost profits, lost customers and headaches for everyone involved. Aside from the obvious business challenges associated with the loss of data, legislation such as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) places requirements on the retention and on request production of certain types of financial data. Companies assume the risk of non-compliance if they are unable to produce information within the specified time constraint required by Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) or other information focused legislation. Database and mainframe disaster recovery is more important in today’s technology dependent business world than ever before.

In the past, many businesses utilized offsite data tape storage as a crucial facet of their disaster recovery plans. Such offsite tape storage entails serious security risks by today’s standards, such as the possibility of loss, theft or damage to the tapes while stored at the offsite location or in transit. In the event of a disaster, the retrieval of information from such sources can waste valuable time, require intensive reorganization by IT professionals and result in financial losses due to database unavailability and customer disappointment. Additionally, scheduled nightly backups often result in periods of several hours during which applications are unavailable to employees or customers.

In today’s information technology driven market, mainframe availability and security are of utmost importance. Fortunately, the need for reliable and efficient mainframe data recovery systems has not been overlooked by innovative enterprise data availability software and service companies. Fully integrated backup and recovery utilities for IMS databases are now available to simplify, automate and expedite the process of recovery without compromising crucial database availability. Such solutions have the capability to, for example, automatically accumulate and copy records on a periodic basis for ease of future retrieval, with some utilities even providing the flexibility of reverting to certain point in time.

Many companies are already discovering the direct benefits associated with such mainframe and database recovery utilities. Eliminating the manual labor requirements and uncertainty associated with offsite tape backup, integrated backup and recovery utilities provide businesses with an easily maintained, reliable and secure means of protecting valuable business data and technology.

Article Source : Dummies Guide To Computers

About Author

Both Mike Walton & Stephen J. Richards are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.

Mike Walton has sinced written about articles on various topics from About Web Hosting, Computers and The Internet and Search Engine Marketing. Mike Walton, founder of , has been in the technology field for 8+ years working with different technologies but focusing on web develtopment. Check out his web si. Mike Walton's top article generates over 8100 views. to your Favourites.

Stephen J. Richards has sinced written about articles on various topics from Data Recovery, Computers and The Internet and Data Recovery. About the Author: Stephen J. Richards has 25 years experience in Data Management and Information Technology. This information is provided as a public service by Neon Enterprise Software, a leading provider of. Stephen J. Richards's top article generates over 4400 views. to your Favourites.