Monday morning, no servers
You arrive at work. A pipe burst over the weekend. The server room is under water. Orders cannot be taken. Staff cannot sign in.
Preventing every disaster is impossible. Disaster recovery (getting systems and data working again) is planned in advance. The plan is the written answer to "what do we do now?"
Key words
| Word | What it means | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Disaster | An event that stops a system or a site working, such as a fire or a flood. | |
| Disaster recovery plan | A plan to get systems and data working again after a disaster. | DRP |
| Business continuity plan | A plan to keep the whole business running during a disaster. | BCP |
| Service | The work a system does for users. | email, sign-in, the website |
| Backup | A spare copy of data, kept so it can be restored. | |
| Off-site | Kept in a different place from the main site. | |
| Restore | Copy data back from a backup. | |
| Server | A computer that gives data or services to other computers. |
The cells students fill in are left blank in this preview.
By the end of this lesson
Note
I can say what a recovery plan is for and name its physical parts.
Starter: what you already know
Have a go
Starter: what you already know
3 questionsYour answers are marked here and are not kept. A college account keeps every student’s marks.
Cycle 1: the role of the plan
The plan has one job: recover and maintain service. Get the work running again, and keep it running.
A disaster recovery plan is part of a bigger business continuity plan. The BCP asks: how does the whole business carry on? The DRP asks: how do we get the computers and data back?
The two physical parts
Backups. A backup is a spare copy of data. Without one, a failed disk can mean lost work for ever.
Off-site alternative storage. A copy in the same room is lost in the same fire or flood. Keep a copy somewhere else, such as another building or a cloud service. Keep spare or replacement servers somewhere else too, so there is something to start up.
Physical parts of a recovery plan
| Part | What it protects against | Weak point |
|---|---|---|
| Backup on a second disk, same room | A disk failing | Lost in the same fire or flood |
| Backup in another building | A fire or flood at the main site | Takes longer to bring back |
| Backup in the cloud | A site being lost | Needs a good internet link to restore |
| Servers kept off-site | The main servers being destroyed | Costs money and needs updates |
The cells students fill in are left blank in this preview.
Check: the role and the parts
Have a go
Check: the role and the parts
4 questionsYour answers are marked here and are not kept. A college account keeps every student’s marks.