Nine Things You Should Know about Documents Backup
Backups are secondary copies of documents, applications and system data that are meant to help restore the system environment in case a system or data disaster strikes. Archives, on the other hand, are primary data that have become inactive or infrequently active.
1. Unless back up procedures and systematized, and implemented without fail, it can fail to serve the intended purpose of disaster recovery. In such a case, the backup might be found incomplete or irrecoverable and the recovery might be partial at best.
2. Backups have to balance two opposing pulls. On the one side there is the pull to copy anything and everything typically leading to considerable redundancies. On the other side, there is the pull to minimize costs by copying only a minimum of data and also by not attending to time-consuming routines like testing the recoverability of data.
3. The pulls are typically balanced by developing a well-planned scheme of backup that ensures backing up all needed data while eliminating redundancies to the extent conveniently possible. The plan will also involved testing the integrity and recoverability of backed up data.
4. The data to be backed up is carefully identified. This will typically include applications, their licenses and activation keys, data created in the normal course and also system data needed to restore the operating environment.
5. Transactions data are typically copied in a well-defined cycle. Full backups of all data are done only at periodical intervals. During the interim, only new and changed data are backed up, with these being identified automatically by the system. That way, there is a copy of all data, though they might be spread over more than one backup media.
6. To be usable, backed up data volumes must be labeled and organized properly to enable retrieval of desired volumes. The labels typically identify the contents of the media, and the dates the relevant backup was done. After each cycle mentioned under 5 above, old media are reused and a new cycle begins.
7. There will also typically be a separate list of backup media, with their IDs, locations, content and dates. It is this list that can help quickly locate desired volumes when it becomes necessary. In a small set up, it can be just a paper list. In larger environs, it can be a database file that can be retrieved on-line.
8. Magnetic tape, removable hard disks, CD/DVD and solid state devices like USB flash drive can be used as backup media. Backup can also be on-line as in RAID systems, or on the Web on third party servers. Factors like costs, portability, accessibility and durability determine the choice in each case.
9. Backups are typically done in busy organizations during predetermined backup windows. These are comparatively inactive periods during which main IT operations will not be disturbed because of the backup operation. Backing up live files is a problem as the contents can change between the start and finish of backup.
Backup is thus not a simple operation of copying files to a secondary media. Instead, it has to be a well planned exercise that will help a complete recovery in case a system or data disaster strikes, and at the same time minimizes the costs, as well as disruption of regular IT operations.