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Chapter 2: Disaster RecoveryWhy Plan for a Disaster?prepare, test, and refine. The plan could fill many volumes. This chapter helps you startthinking about and planning for disaster recovery. A system administrator should expect and plan for the worst, and then hope for the best. During a disaster recovery, nothing should be done for the first time.Unpleasant surprises could be fatal to the recovery process.Here are some of the reasons to develop a disaster recovery plan: Will business operations stop if R/3 fails? How much lost revenue and cost will be incurred for each hour that the system is down? Which critical business functions cannot be completed? How will customers be supported? How long can the system be down before the company goes out of business? Who is coordinating and managing the disaster recovery? What will the users do while R/3 is down? How long will the system be down? How long will it take before the R/3 System is available for use?If you plan properly, you will be under less stress, because you know that the system can berecovered and how long this recovery will take.If the recovery downtime is unacceptable, management should invest in: Equipment, facilities, and personnel High availability (HA) optionsHA options can be expensive. There are different degrees of HA, so customers need todetermine which option is right for them.HA is an advanced topic beyond the scope of this guidebook. If you are interested in thistopic, contact an HA vendor.System Administration Made Easy2–3