Dell Power Solutions

STORAGEFor optimal protection, administrators should perform fullbackups either as part of a regularly scheduled backup plan or asa snapshot that is performed off-schedule. Additionally, administratorsshould perform a full backup each time a significant changein the system data occurs. Administrators should also create anew bootable disk set or CD any time they change a system’shardware or OS.Of course, disaster recovery solutions are only as effective asthe media rotation schedule that is put in place. If tapes are notrotated regularly and stored in secure locations, then critical data isstill at risk, and in such a circumstance no disaster recovery solutionwill be effective.Examining product differencesSome disaster recovery products have highly specialized functionality,and for performance or security reasons, they may requirethat each protected system have an attached tape device. Whenthis is the case, organizations may need to purchase one disasterrecovery product license per protected system. Alternatively,products may allow network-based recovery of a remote systemusing backup data archived on disk instead of on tape. However,complexities may exist when enabling network connectivity on abare-metal system. For that reason, disk-based network disasterrecovery solutions do not typically offer the same level of reliability,portability, or scalability that tape-based disaster recoverysolutions can provide.Because all operating systems do not fully support plug-andplaytechnology, disaster recovery operations should always beperformed on the same computer system after replacing the faultyhardware that caused the system failure. Most disaster recovery solutionsassume that no major changes to the hardware have occurred;the hardware to which data is restored must be virtually identicalto the source system.Administrators should be cautious of so-called disaster recoverysolutions that do not fully restore the base OS. These products mayattempt a scripted reinstallation of the OS and then restore just thecritical data. Such methods usually incur slow restore times, mayrequire manual intervention, and have a tendency to break downon systems using advanced hardware that requires additional drivers,service packs, or hardware not originally supported out of thebox by the OS.Cloning solutions, another option for disaster recovery, are targetedtoward the desktop OS market. These products effectivelyallow the creation of a point-in-time image, or snapshot, of a systemthat can be stored on a hard drive or network volume. These productsare traditionally used to clone an OS as a method of deploying astandard desktop image onto multiple systems. While this techniqueallows for quick recovery of a stock system, it is not feasible fordaily data protection tasks or large application servers.Selecting a robust productBecause hardware and device support vary by platform and OS,a viable disaster recovery product must be robust enough to offermultiple recovery methods that may include bootable floppy disks,a bootable CD image, or a bootable tape device. A robust productshould also provide support for all leading tape device manufacturersto offer maximum flexibility during recovery.In addition, disaster recovery should not be limited to serverplatforms; a disaster recovery product must also protect desktop PCsand workgroup environments. Usually, critical data does not resideentirely on enterprise file and application servers. Rather, data is distributedacross the hard drives of desktop and notebook computersused daily by employees and executives. While most server-basedbackup products can back up desktop clients remotely, few offerthe combination of affordable disaster recovery, local tape devicesupport, common user interface, intelligent wizards, and robustfeatures needed to fully protect desktops and workstations.Preparation for disaster recoveryWhen a computer fails, recovery time is crucial. Loading andconfiguring an OS and reinstalling software can be very timeconsumingfor IT staff, and lack of access to important data curtailsproductivity for other employees. When disaster recovery isproperly executed, organizations can quickly and easily achievefull restoration of a system’s OS, hard drive partitions, applications,and data.The key to painless disaster recovery is having a reliable backupin place and a disaster recovery product that enables an organizationto recover even from a large-scale loss of data. The YosemiteTapeWare Bare Metal Disaster Recovery Agent takes data restorationto a high level by providing a comprehensive, easy-to-use solutionthat works across multiple platforms and operating systems.This approach is designed to automate and streamline both therestore aspect of disaster recovery and the creation of disasterrecovery media—thereby helping ensure that these critical tasksare not overlooked. By saving IT administrators the hassle andcomplexities of learning a different recovery strategy for eachplatform and OS deployed throughout the network, Yosemite helpsadministrators to be more productive and better focused on datamanagement.Eric Harless is a product line manager at Yosemite Technologies.FOR MORE INFORMATIONYosemite backup and disaster recovery:www.yosemitetech.comwww.dell.com/powersolutions Reprinted from Dell Power Solutions, February 2005. Copyright © 2005 Dell Inc. All rights reserved. POWER SOLUTIONS 81