Backup Guidelines

What is a Backup?

A backup is an electronic copy of data that is recorded to some type of nonvolatile removable media, such as, a tape, diskette, or CD-ROM.  This media must be stored off site in a safe protected place.  There should be multiple tapes or media so that redundancy and fail safe strategies can be implemented.

Note:  For more information, contact NDS Technical Support.

Importance of Backups

A backup is the only way to recover data from any sort of catastrophic data failure event on the server.  These events can manifest themselves in a variety of different shapes and ways.  Without a backup, the data is lost forever and often with dire consequences.  A business can be wiped out financially if data cannot be recovered.

When will I need to use a Backup?

Hopefully, never!  Your backup is insurance protection for your data in the event that one of the following scenarios occurs at your office.

Customer Disaster Scenarios:

 IMPORTANT:  You can recover from all of these scenarios if you maintain proper data backups and procedures.

• Natural Disasters – including lightning strike, fire, water

• System failure – including hard drive failure, file corruption through faulty software, electrical spikes, static electricity

• Man-made – including deleting files unintentionally, disgruntled employees changing data, viruses or outside hackers.

NDS Recommendations for Customer Backup Media

We recommend that you maintain the following backups for your system:

1.  Store backup media off site in a safe and protected place that is readily accessible when needed.

2.  Monday through Friday (Normal Backup) – Back up data bases with a full verification using a separate tape for each day that your office is open.  Clearly mark each tape used.  If you are open Saturday then you should maintain an additional tape.  A backup can be performed automatically, or if required, manually.

Note:  The more tapes in your rotation, the larger the window of time there is to detect issues.  NDS recommends using at least 10 daily backup tapes, which covers two weeks Monday through Friday.
 

3.  Month End (Normal Backup) – Back up data bases on a separate tape labeled for that month.

Note:  NDS strongly recommends using a separate tape for each month.
 

4.  Quarterly Basis (Full System Backup) – Perform a full system backup, i.e. mksysb tape or the equivalent.  Includes all configurations, user software etc., including:

• Data Volume Definition – Any area where data changes during the work process

• MySQL data bases located under /ndsys/

• Shared or mapped drives used for storing personal productivity files located under /ndsys/dos

• Any other area where data created or accessed from the NDS software or network is stored

5.  Miscellaneous Basis (Full System Backup) - Perform a full system backup prior to system upgrades (either software or hardware).

Checking Your Backup

 IMPORTANT:  Know the status of your backups before resizing, rehashing, installing data or updating programs on your system.

1.  Whenever you run a backup, verify that it completed successfully.  You can check the status by viewing the electronic backup log, which contains information about the last 12 backups.
Suggestion:  Print and save the log for reference during the recovery process.  The printed version is especially useful if you experience a hard drive failure, which can render the electronic log inaccessible.

2.  Make certain you have access to your backup and know when the last backup was performed.

3.  Compare the archive set to what you see under the directories.
Important:  If there are discrepancies, contact NDS Technical Support.

4.  If you are a CPS32 site, use the same strategy as XRTS systems.

• The /cps32 directory is where the CADOL volumes are stored.

• Uses a Windows based archiving system.