Objective 3: Backup Operations

This Objective is restricted to creating an off-site backup plan. Offsite backups could be considered backup backups. They can be used if the main backup burns or breaks in some way, but the main use of off-site backup is to perform disaster recovery (e.g., to get a backup site running if the primary production site collapses in an earthquake, floods, or becomes inoperational or unavailable in some other way).

The important question as a senior administrator is: what will I do if my production machine room burns down? If the answer is satisfactory to yourself and your management, you're fine. It's likely that your company would be out of business if it lacked computers for too long. If your current plans cannot cope with a disaster, it may well be the senior system administrator's job to point this out to management and help plan for disaster recovery. To prepare for the worst, one of the first and easiest things to do is create an off-site backup scheme. This at least enables you to install software and databases when you get hardware to install it on.

You should consider three classifications of threats for disaster and recovery planning :

Natural

Hurricane, tornado, flood, and fire

Human

Operator error, sabotage, implant of malicious code, and terrorist attacks

Environmental

Equipment failure, software error, telecommunications network outage, and electric power failure

After studying and defining the initial potential threats, you need to mantain ...

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