networking curriculum
support CD for senior
secondary studies

Topics
. Home
. Networking History
. Why network?
. OSI model
. Connecting up
. Protocols
. Technology
. Network types
. Topologies
. Issues
. Design factors
. Economic effects
. www links
. Site map

networking > issues > backups

Backups

Any disaster recovery plan should include detailed procedures for backing up. Backing up, which is the process of making copies of data, will not prevent the loss of the data but will allow for the recovery of the lost data. The backup process usually involves a removable storage media such as magnetic tape, CDs, zip or jaz disk or a device such as a mirror server (a duplicate of the operational server).

Many organisations will have a back up procedure that includes:

• when the back up should take place,
• what data should be copied and
• where the back up storage media are stored.

Most of the time organisations would program their back up software to operate automatically overnight at the same time each evening. Logs should then indicate if the back up was successful or if some error had occurred that prevented the copying of the files.

Organisations have the option to back up all data on the network server, or just the data that has been changed during the day’s operations.

Often organisations use a different tape (or other storage media) for each day of the week, another for each week of the month and sometimes keep one for the end of each month. This means there are many tapes that need to be organised, however, it also allows for lost data to be tracked back over a long period of time.

How and where storage media is kept is very important. Organisations should not store backups near the original copies of the data, since a fire would destroy both of them. Backups should be stored in a secure location off-site, away from heat, strong electrical fields, moisture, humidity, direct sunlight, children, and untrustworthy people.

Any useful data recovery procedure should test that any lost data can be recovered from the backups. It is not sufficient to assume the data can be recovered from back up media. Some back up software will allow users to view the data that was backed up on the removable media to ensure the procedure was successful. A "dry run" of restoring data on a server is also a worthwhile exercise.

The author knew of one school office that backed up its daily work with religious zeal for several years. It was only when the time came to update the backup software that they realised that for all that time they had been backing up the wrong directory, and in fact none of their work had ever been backed up.

worksheets
. history
. why network
. osi model
. connecting
. protocols
. technology
. topologies (tla)
. issues
. network types
. design
. economics
. economics (cs)
   - solutions -

quizzes
. why network
. osi model
. connecting
. protocols
. technology
. topology
. issues
. network types
. design
. economics

| Home | History | Why Network? | OSI Model | Connecting up | Protocols | Technology | Networks Types | Topologies | Issues | Design Factors | Economic effects |
:: copyright | credits | sitemap ::

© 2003 Victorian Information Technology Teachers Association
http://www.vitta.org.au/