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Reliable Tape Drive
For most small business offices
working with current storage demands, expect to pay near $2,000 for a reliable
tape drive and weekly set of tapes having a compressed storage of 160 GB (April, 2007).
The PowerVault tape drives
from Dell are an excellent choice.
Is 160 GB too big or too small? How big of a tape drive is
needed?
Have near twice the storage capacity of the hard disk drive at the file
server.
Validation Procedure
Why validate the tape backup?
What can happen: tape failure, tape drive failure, software failure, power
failure, human error.
It is a terrible mistake to assume that a tape backup is always working.
Without validation, you may unfortunately discover when attempting to
restore data, that either the tape drive was not backing up data or---the tape
media or drive is damaged in a manner of which prevents a proper restoration.
The best way to ensure the security and an accounted history of stored
information is to manually inspect the backup log and record the condition
of the backup into a bound log book.
There are automated methods of forwarding a backup log to you or a systems
analyst through E-mail so as to avoid trips to the server when checking logs.
Most fire code in US cities require commercial building owners to test fire
extinguishers. Being a mechanical device, is a tape drive any different?
A test restoration of information at least twice a year is recommended.
If the backup log shows a successful backup of data, this does not
necessarily mean it will be possible to perform a complete restoration.
A test restoration allows for a "fire drill" exercise and validates the
restoration process.
Daily Rotation
The rotation of tapes is essential to have a complete backup for each day on
a single tape, to extend the life of tapes and to have redundancy in protecting
information.
A daily rotation proceeds where the tape left in the tape drive the day
before is removed and replaced with a tape assigned for the current day.
A tape is assigned for each day of the week.
This type of rotation is suitable for most organizations with 20 or less
computers and 10 or less employees.
Quarterly Archiving
In the event that information can not be recovered from the weekly set of
tapes, an archived tape can be used to perform a partial or complete recovery of
information.
One of the difficulties in information management is associated with database
files of which become unstable and eventually unusable.
This type of file is used with the following applications: Outlook,
Exchange Server, SQL Server, Access, Peachtree, Quicken, and QuickBooks Pro.
For example, as the backup proceeds through a week, a database file has
become partially corrupted and is copied to each backup tape.
Eventually, the database file becomes unusable when running its application
(Outlook for example).
A restoration is performed where it is found that the same corrupted
database file has been copied to each one of the tapes for the entire week.
If a tape is removed from the rotation and write protected every 3 months,
there will always be an alternative tape to restore from of which has not been
overwritten with corrupted computer files.
Off-Site Storage
It is a good idea to store a weekly set of tapes in water-proof and fire
resistant security chest.
It is also a good idea to store archived tapes in a location separate from
the building location of the computers and weekly tapes.
Storing tapes off-site helps secure information in the event of catastrophic
fire, water damage, earthquake, and theft.
Some choose to use a safety deposit box at a local bank. Others choose
to use a safe in a separate building or at their homes.
Apex IS will provide consulting services and if so desired, establish an
off-site vaulting procedure with
www.ironmountain.com.
Methods Other Than Tape
Other methods for securing information involve copying to CD, DVD, other hard
disk drives and zip disks.
Ghosting
Noteworthy is a process called "ghosting" or "disk imaging.".
The ghosting process is quite helpful in the event of hard disk failure where
all software and data can be restored to a computer from a set of DVD disks or
separate hard disk drive.
This allows for a clone of all data and...software installed on a computer to
be created on a tape, separate hard disk drive or set of DVDs.
Protects data and saves the trouble of going through a lengthy installation
process for each different software application.
Highly recommended for computers having many different software programs
installed of which can otherwise require many hours to install and reconfigure.
If a home user and choosing to "ghost" your hard disk drive, it is
recommended not to use the older versions of the Ghost software from Symantec.
Only use Ghost 9.0 or later.
Current top recommend imaging software is Acronis True Image 10 Home or
later.
Redundant Array of Independent Disks
There are fault tolerant systems of which secure information across multiple
hard disks, Redundant Array of Independent Disks (RAID).
If one hard disk fails out of 6, the information is still available and a
tape restoration is not required.
This type of system however can be quite expensive to purchase and support.
The phrase: Redundant Array of "Inexpensive" Disks---is a widely misused term
in industry as having RAID certainly does present its costs over lesser
configurations for small business.
A RAID system is needed by organizations which for example have a database of
which must be online 24/7 and risk substantial revenue and/or productivity loss
in the event of hard disk drive failure.
Even with RAID, a robust tape backup system is needed to tightly secure
information.
Deleted Files
Unless an unusual process is in place, under MS Windows, DOS and most other
operating systems, a file is not truly "deleted" from a hard disk until an
alternate source has written over the physical disk space once occupied by such
a file.
A delete command and dumping of the recycle bin in Windows opens the space
used by files on a hard disk to be overwritten by other information.
If no writing to the hard disk has occurred, the file thought to be
"deleted" is still there and is recoverable using "undelete" software from
Symantec!
If writing has occurred, the file may or may not be recoverable depending on
which physical sections of the hard disk have been overwritten.
For this reason and other performance purposes, it is good to have at
least two different hard disks at a file server to physically separate write
processes required by the operating system, services and running applications.
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