Creating a Disaster Recovery Plan for your database (SQL)

15Feb 2017 by richard@baronsoftware.com

Creating a Disaster Recovery Plan for your database (SQL)

Idera

 

Idera recently had a fantastic webinar that went over the creation of a disaster recovery plan concerning your databases.  This should be a high critical piece of work usually done by DBAs within a company.  Let’s go over a simple set of plans that depending on the type of company you are dealing with, can be done either large or small.

  1. Backups.  All backups should be done with incremental or full backups of your database.  There should be a protected network folder that contains the incremental in one and the full backups (usually done once a week) in a separate folder.  An incremental is a backup that contains only a snapshot of transactions that are done during a day while a full backup contains the entire database.
  2. Data model.  A data model provides a visual as well as a detailed layout of each database / table that provides a method for someone to read and understand how the data is stored.  It can be noted as a roadmap that contains the relationships between the tables within the database as well as the keys / indexes that work with the tables.
  3. User security profiles.  Each DBA should have a listing of the usernames / passwords in a safe area.  In the event a fellow member leaves but they had the password on a specific database you now possibly have the way in.  There are numerous companies that tend to not have that and during the exit interviews it becomes lost.
  4. Contact listing of people.  The contact list contains the individuals that have to be notified if a database is corrupted and has to be repaired or restored from the backups.  You can set the priority of each person as well.
  5. Checklist. By having a checklist of what to do in the event of a DRP it will keep you focus on getting everything back up and running.  One missed step could push you back thus delaying the recovery.
  6. Backup life cycles.  Each company is different and whether the backups are taken off site for now long and when are they removed / erased.  You have to plan this out and the usually lifecycle is between 3 months to a year.

These are only minor steps but at least they do enforce a DRP that any DBA needs to have in place prior to the disaster happening.