LinuxSA Mailing list archives

  From: dcd <d_delyn@eml.cc>
  To  : Alan Boldock <linux@boldenterprise.com.au>
  Date: Tue, 28 May 2002 00:46:26 +0930

Re: Backup policies, standards

There is a book about called

Backup and Restore policies for Business (or something very similar to 
this, it's about two years since I saw it.)

Just a hint, don't keep this policy within your department there may be 
more than just you affected.

I was always told to check your legal business requirements first, and 
how your data fits into this framework.
     ie ISO9001 credited systems actually have to keep records for a 
specific time.
If your backups fit this criteria you can save the company heaps of 
storage space required for the paper equivalent a point sometimes 
overlooked by upper management. The same can apply to tax audited 
systems. As I believe burn't CD's  are now legally acceptable 
permananent records, whereas tapes obviously are not. So your chosen 
medium can be affected by these requirements. As well as the scale of 
the operation.

Again I haven't been directly involved for a couple of years so I'd 
check it out first.

There is probably an ISO (International Standards Organization)standard 
written by now reguarding management of backups if you want to head in 
that path. Or possibily an AS (Australian Standard)usually only an 
adopted ISO
try their site should be still at www.standards.com.au (Yep, still is)

Mmm! as usual fairly vague but these could be what your looking for.
AS ISO 15489.2 2002     Records management guidelines

Or you can look at the traditional schools of daily backups, designed 
from the system integrity / administration
viewpoint. These usually follow the principles

A backup per day (often incremental), restarts from each full backup. A 
rotation of at least two cycles before the same media is overwritten (ie 
for weekly full backup, 10 disks/tapes)

A weekly or monthly seperate disk for a full backup
(depends how many tapes/disks you feel like using for an incremental 
restore)
of which every second disk, is swapped for a disk stored offsite securely.
         (The Managers briefcase is not the place) (ie minimum of 3 
disks/tapes)

A yearly or six monthly Audited copy is retained for records. ie Tax for 
accounting DBases
(ie 2 disks/tapes)    Careful what goes on these, if they are 
specifically for Tax only put the related files on these, keep 
everything else on a seperate set. (Your tax is public record, but don't 
make everything public too.) 
 
Disks/tapes should also have a replacement schedule well within their 
expected lifespan. Check it out because some tapes have a very short life.

A regular schedule for testing restore, from both incremental and full 
backup disk/tapes.
A proper labeling and storage and disposal procedure also helps keep 
things running smooth too. Nothing worse than going through a stack of 
tapes to find out which one was last. Or wondering which visitor may 
have picked up your company data.

Most system admin books state something similar to the last 5 or six 
paragraphs.

Best of luck, hope this helped some
dcd
 
 

 



Alan Boldock wrote:

>Hi all,
>
>can some one point me at some policies for backups, 
>or maybe if there are some Quality assured standards
>that others are using? I want to be able to site some 
>standards for a reasonable backup and disaster 
>recovery plan I don't want to re-invent the wheel on 
>this one.
>
>Thanks
>Alan 
>
>
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