Recovery Planning

Nothing (other than a backup) is more helpful during an emergency than a well-thought-out recovery plan. Actually, this is an overall term because you should plan for network or server outagesfrom the loss of a single disk drive to the loss of a single computer system, and even to the loss of your entire network. Chapter 3, "Network Design Strategies," stresses that you should always document the network and its components. Recovery procedures should be part of this documentation.

The problem with disasters is that you can't schedule them. They don't always occur during normal business hours when you are wide awake and functioning well. In the middle of the night after a long day at work, you might get called in to restore a system without having the advantage of a good night's sleep. A good disaster-recovery plan can be helpful if only to keep you from making a mistake during the recovery process.

A good disaster recovery plan includes several items:

• Contact information for key personnel who need to be involved in the recovery effort, as well as personnel who need to be informed of the event, such as application client representatives. Don't forget to keep this information up-to-date.

• Contact information for vendors of both the hardware and the software components of the system or network. This should include both technical support telephone numbers and contact information for local field personnel who might need to come in and assist you with setting up or repairing the damage.

• Step-by-step procedures for remedying the situation. This can involve such things as how to completely rebuild a particular computer system from scratch by reinstalling the operating system and applying the backup tapes. Configuration information for routers and other devices should be documented in the recovery plan.

• After the disaster has been remedied according to your plan, there needs to be a set of tests you can perform on the operating system, the hardware, and the applications to ensure that the recovery effort has been successful.