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Chapter 2: Disaster RecoveryMinimizing the Chances for a DisasterApplications located on only one person’s desktop computer must be backed up to a safelocation.Having a contract with a disaster recovery site does not guarantee that the site will beavailable. In a regional disaster, such as an earthquake or flood, many other companies willbe competing for the same commercial disaster sites. In this situation, you may not have asite to recover to, if others have booked it before you.The emergency backup site may not have equipment of the same performance level as yourproduction system. Reduced performance and transaction throughput must be considered.Examples: A reduced batch schedule of only critical jobs Only essential business tasks will be done while on the recovery systemThere are many ways to minimize chances for a disaster. Some of these ideas seem obvious,but it is these ideas that are often forgotten.Many disasters are caused by human error, such as a mistake or a tired operator. Do notattempt dangerous tasks when you are tired. If you have to do a dangerous task, get asecond opinion before you start. Dangerous tasks should be scripted and checkpoints included to verify the steps.Such tasks include: Deleting the test databaseCheck that the delete command specifies the Test, not theProduction, database. Moving a fileVerify that the target file (to be overwritten) is the old, not the new, file. Formatting a new driveVerify that the drive to be formatted is the new drive, not an existing drive with dataon it.System Administration Made Easy2–17