Disaster Recovery

SQL Server Disaster Recovery Audit

Not Having a SQL Server Disaster Recovery Plan Can Cost You.

Most companies have a backup process - you probably take regular backups and store them in a safe place, maybe even off site. But here’s the problem. When have you last looked at your backups or even tried to restore them? If you’re like most companies, you don’t look at them regularly to see if they’re working.

As the DBA, your job could be on the line if you’re not able to recover your company’s database after a disaster. There are many reasons for a backup not to work. They reach from corrupted drives to broken log chains.

After the production database went down is not the time to discover that you cannot restore any of your backups. It is also not the time to search through the manual to figure out how exactly the restore sequence has to be.

The only way to know that your backups are good is to restore them. The only way to be confident that you can restore your database(s) in the shortest possible time is to automate that process.

Call us at 832-377-5489 or email us today and let’s discuss your disaster recovery needs.

Your SQL Server Disaster Recovery Plan

It’s not enough to take backups. It’s not enough to have a “theory” and “know” how you can restore your database, if needed. You need to practice the recovery, like every other type of disaster recovery team practices.

Think about it.

Firefighters don’t whip out the “how to fight a fire” handbook when there’s a fire. They practice by having fire drills. They time their movements and their coordination and make sure they know how to handle the fire truck, improve how fast they can get into their gear and practice how to safely go into a burning building. Some airports even have a full-sized airplane model to practice extinguishing airplane fires (e.g. in O’Hare, Chicago you can see one during approach, depending on the airstrip you are on).

That way, when there is a real emergency they’re prepared.

Think “it’ll never happen”?

That’s what the emergency personnel in Sioux City, Iowa thought when the Mayor insisted they train for a plane crash.

Everyone thought “it would never happen” at their tiny airport, but it did just a few months later. Because they were ready, they were able to save the lives of most of the people involved in the crash. (See United Flight 232 Lecture by Capt. Al Haynes starting at minute 21.)

But this page is not about burning buildings or crashing planes, it is about data - your data.

Your Business is at Stake

What will happen to your business if you lose all your data, or even only the last two days' worth of data? What happens if you can recover, but it takes a week?

Are you prepared? Do you have a SQL Server disaster recovery plan in place? Remember, without your data, your business is at stake.

Here are Two Important Objectives for Your Backups:

• Ask how much time your business can survive without the database being up and accessible? How much time do you have, after disaster strikes, to get your systems back in order? This is your Recovery Time Objective.
• How much data can you lose without risking the business? Can you afford to lose all transactions that happened during the last week? Or will your business go under if you lose more than a few minutes of data? The answer to that question is your Recovery Point Objective.

You need to base your backup plan on the answers to these two questions.

As you know, SQL Server has a complex backup system that allows you to get those two numbers as small as possible. However, this comes at a price. The smaller those numbers, the higher your cost (Hardware, Storage capacity, Network capacity and even Licensing). Therefore it is important to design your disaster recovery strategy to match your unique needs.

sqlity.net can help you determine your real needs.

sqlity.net can help you find the sweet spot for the Recovery Point Objective and the Recovery Time Objective to match your business needs. With those answers we will design an appropriate backup/restore or high availability for you and help you implement it. We also provide the necessary training to your staff to keep the system running and to be ready, if disaster should ever strike. This will give you the peace of mind, that your system is protected.

Don’t wait until after the disaster happened. Call 832-377-5489 or email us today to discus your disaster recovery strategy.