Professionals: Have tested a full server restore in the last 6 months
Amateurs: Carry on backing up but they have no idea if the tapes will restore!
Best practice for Backup and RESTORE
One of my questions to companies is: 'Have you tried a restore lately?' In some ways
this is a cheap shot because hardly anyone tests a full restore every week.
Nevertheless do think about restore; you have invested in good software like
BackupExec or
ArcServe, how would you feel if you try a restore and it fails?
At first I did not believe the statistic that 35% of all backups do not restore in the way that
you think. But as I visit sites, the reasons for these failures became
apparent. Let
me illustrate best practice with four sad case histories.
Case A. The shifting files.
Backup does its job perfectly. It is just that the important files
were moved to a new folder on a different drive. Example: old settings =
d:\accounts, new settings e:\superaccounts. Carelessly, the new
folder e:\superaccounts was not included in path for the backup job. A variation of this
problem is
still backing up the old server when you have moved all the data to the new
server!
The boss buys a box of tapes and shows the
timid assistant how to insert the first tape into the drive. On day one
backup works brilliantly. But on day two the operator cannot eject the
tape; so being timid, but resourceful, they get out the Tippex. You have
guessed what happened next, they write today's date on the label and repeat
every day. Guess what
happens when you want to restore last weeks data? You only get yesterday's
incremental backup.
New young strapping lad wishes to make an impression. The backup tape
was reluctant to eject. No problem to our young Rambo - he ripped the tape out,
drive and all! At least with Rambo you knew you had a problem, so many of
the backup / restore faults only show up when the disaster strikes.
Case D. Check that backup deals with open files.
In my opinion backing up open files used to be Microsoft's Achilles
heel, if it was not so, then BackupExec would never have become a
commercial best seller.
In Windows 2000 backup had a fatal flaw, it will not backup open files. More than one
company has relied on Windows 2000 to backup SQL and
Exchange 5.5 databases. Big mistake. When they wanted to restore
there were no database files on the tapes.
Good news, in Server 2003,
Volume Shadow Copy has been designed to deal with this very problem of open
files.
Always check the Event Viewer logs, especially after backup.
Challenge: Try a full restore on a spare machine - only a 65% chance it will
do what you think!
Over
40 of Guy's litmus tests. Have fun while you learn about Windows
Server 2003. Stacks of ideas to check your servers, networks and
security.
Your eBook has
printer friendly pages and lots more screen shots.
Windows
Server 2008 Enterprise Admin
Train Signal have an excellent Windows Server 2008 course. You get over 70
hrs instruction with Ed Liberman and Ben "Coach" Culbertson. Try their
step-by-step videos and master Windows Server 2008 Enterprise Admin.
The package includes the Transcender exams, which are the key to gaining the
coverted Microsoft Certified IT Professional certification. However, the
course also builds practical experience so that you can manage your network
effectively once you complete the course.
Always check the Event Viewer logs, especially after backup.
Over
40 of Guy's litmus tests. Have fun while you learn about Windows
Server 2003. Stacks of ideas to check your servers, networks and
security.
