STORE and TurboSTORE/iX Products Manual (B5151-90003)

190 Chapter13
Disaster Recovery
Planning for Disaster Recovery
Planning for Disaster Recovery
Selecting a recovery facility is only part of a comprehensive disaster recovery program. You
should prepare and implement a comprehensive disaster recovery plan. Your plan should
detail resource requirements and procedures for each step in the recovery process.
The Recovery Facility
Locate your recovery facility close to the computer system you want to protect, but not in
the same building or group of buildings. It should be in a different power distribution
system. If you think your system may be damaged by a major earthquake, locate the
recovery facility in another region of the country. The facility should have adequate
security, provided by either security guards or controlled system access.
System Compatibility
The disaster recovery computer system must be compatible with your Data Center
computer system. The main memory, disk drives, backup drives, and printers should allow
you to perform necessary recovery operations without requiring you to reconfigure your
system. The recovery computer system should also be expandable to meet your future
needs.
The number of telephone lines into the disaster recovery facility should be sufficient to
support recovery operations. Telephone lines should be either of voice or data quality,
depending on your requirements. Data communications equipment must be compatible
with your data transmission requirements. Pay attention to required baud rates and other
special requirements.
Name representatives from your Data Center and the disaster recovery facility who will
keep in frequent contact to ensure continued compatibility between computer systems.
They ensure that changes made in either system do not affect the disaster recovery
capability, and that upgrades in the Data Center computer system are quickly reflected in
the disaster recovery computer system.
Disaster Notification and Response Time
A disaster can occur any time without warning. Your recovery center should be available
24 hours a day. The time from when you notify the recovery center to the time that your
backup system is up and running is called response time. Response time requirements
vary depending upon the business situation. A response time of four hours is normally
considered a quick turnaround.
Only authorized personnel should notify the disaster recovery facility to initiate disaster
recovery. They should identify themselves to the disaster recovery facility by a
prearranged codeword; and, of course, the disaster recovery facility personnel must act
quickly and report promptly for recovery operations.