Successful System Recovery using Ignite-UX

The three categories of broadly different systems are as follows:
• Sunrise — those systems that are just starting out the use life-cycle and are undergoing rapid
change. These systems probably require the most frequent recovery archives creation: every few
days to at most a few weeks. Systems in this category are usually pre-production or test, or have
just entered production and are being closely monitored.
• Mid-life — those systems that are in the middle of the use life-cycle, are past the initial intense
implementation effort, and are mostly stable, though may still undergo significant change. The
majority of these systems probably require fixed, periodic recovery tapes to be created about
every month or two. Additionally, ad hoc recovery archives should be created before and after
major system changes to facilitate a back-out strategy in the event that the changes are unstable
and must be removed; this includes major patch changes to the operating system. The creation
of post hoc recovery archives also allows you to recover to a known condition in the event of a
major system outage after any major system changes.
• Sunset — those systems that are at the end of the use-life cycle and rarely change. These systems
require fewer recovery archives to be created: about every three to six months, with ad hoc
recovery archives created before and after significant changes.
Creation frequency
The following table summarizes general recommendations regarding how often recovery archives
should be created based on the quality
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of your change process documentation in relation to each
system use life-cycle category.
Table 1
Quality of Change Process
Documentation
Frequency for
Sunrise Systems
Frequency for
Mid-life Systems
Frequency for
Sunset Systems
Non-existent (0%
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) Weekly or more often Every 2 weeks Monthly
Poor (33%) Weekly or more often Every 2 weeks Monthly
Average (50%) Weekly or more often Monthly Bi-Monthly
Excellent (80%) Weekly Monthly Quarterly
Complete (100%) Weekly Bi-Monthly Semi-Annually
Important:
Table 1 is intended as a guide only and should be adjusted to suit your
business needs for recovery (business resumption planning). There may
be other factors that reduce the above time periods: for example, a lack
of resources to reapply changes after a recovery, which in a sunrise
system may mean creating recovery archives every 1 to 2 days if the
change process is dynamic.
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Remember that quality is measured by the ability to locate all of the changes that have been effected on a system in a given period of time,
as well as the ability to replicate these changes using the change process documentation.
5
This is the percentage of changes that could be replicated from change process documentation.
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