Running head: BACKUP AND DISASTER RECOVERY 1

BACKUP AND DISASTER RECOVERY

Michael Allen

Liberty University Online

March 4, 2016
BACKUP AND DISASTER RECOVERY 2

Abstract

Many business rely on Disaster Recovery (DR) services to prevent either man made or natural

disasters from causing expensive service disruptions. Businesses use information technology to

quickly and effectively process information. Employees use electronic mail and Voice Over

Internet Protocol (VOIP) telephone systems to communicate. Electronic data interchange (EDI)

is used to transmit data, including orders and payments from one company to another. Servers

process information and store large amounts of data. Desktop computers, laptops and wireless

devices are used by employees to create, process, manage and communicate information.

Unfortunately current DR services come either at a very high cost or with only weak guarantees

about the amount of data lost, or time required to restart operations after a failure. Backup and

restore for recovery requires a backup and restore strategy. A well designed backup and restore

strategy maximizes data availability and minimizes data loss while considering particular

business requirements. Our society’s growing reliance on crucial computer systems means that

even short periods of downtime can result in significant financial loss, or in some cases even put

human lives at risk.

BACKUP AND DISASTER RECOVERY

Disasters can be classified into two broad categories. The first is natural disasters such as

floods, hurricanes, tornadoes or earthquakes. While preventing a natural disaster is impossible,

risk management measures such as avoiding disaster-prone situations and good planning can

help. The second category is man-made disasters, such as hazardous material spills,

infrastructure failure, bio-terrorism, and disastrous IT bugs or failed change implementations. In

these instances, surveillance, testing and mitigation planning are invaluable. Disaster recovery is

primarily a form of long distance state replication combined with the ability to start up

applications at the backup site after a failure is detected. Incomplete RTOs and RPOs can

quickly derail a disaster recovery plan. Every item in the DR plan requires a defined recovery

point and time objective, as failure to create them may lead to significant problems that can

extend the disaster’s impact. Once the RTO and RPO metrics have been mapped to IT

infrastructure, the DR planner can determine the most suitable recovery strategy for each system.

The organization ultimately sets the IT budget and therefore the RTO and RPO metrics need to

fit with the available budget. While most business unit heads would like zero data loss and zero

time loss, the cost associated with that level of protection may make the desired high availability

solutions impractical. A cost-benefit analysis often dictates which disaster recovery measures are

implemented.

The amount and type of state that is sent to the backup site can vary depending on the

applications needs. State replication can be done at one of these layers (1) within an application,

(2) per disk or within a file system, or (3) for the full system context. Replication at the

application layer can be the most optimized, only transferring the crucial state of a specific

application. Backup mechanisms operating at the file system or disk layer replicate all or a
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portion of the file system tree to the remote site without requiring specific application

knowledge. The use of virtualization makes it possible to not only transparently replicate the

complete disk, but also the memory context of a virtual machine allowing it to seamlessly

resume operation after a failure. However such a technique is typically designed only for LAN

environments due to significant bandwidth and latency requirements.

In general DR services fall under one of the following categories: Hot Backup Site

provides a set of mirrored stand-by services that are always available to run the application once

a disaster occurs, providing minimal Recovery Time Objective (RTO) and Recovery Point

Objective (RPO). Hot Stand-by Site typically use synchronous replications to prevent any data

loss due to disaster. This form of backup is the most expensive since fully powered servers must

be available at all times to run the application, plus extra licensing fees may apply for some

applications. Warm Backup Sites may keep state up to date with either synchronous or

asynchronous replication schemes depending on the necessary RPO. Stand-by servers to run the

application after failure are available, but are kept in a warm state where it may take minutes to

bring them online. This slows recovery, but also reduces cost. The server resources to run the

application must be available at all times. Cold Back-up Site data is often only replicated on a

periodic basis, leading to a RPO of hours and days. In addition, servers to run the application

after failure are not readily available and there may be a delay of hours or days as hardware is

kept in storage until needed. In addition to managing state replication, a DR solution must be

able to detect when a disaster has occurred, perform a failure procedure to activate the backup

site, as well as run the fallback steps necessary to revert control back to the primary data center

once the disaster has been dealt with.

Recovery Point Objective (RPO) of a DR system represents the point of time of the most recent

backup prior to any failure. For some applications absolutely no data can be lost (RPO=0)
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requiring continuous synchronous replications to be used. While for other applications the

acceptable data loss could range from a few seconds, to hours or even days.

Recovery Time Objective (RTO) of a DR is an orthogonal business decision that specifies a

limit on how long it can take for an application to come back online after a failure occurs. This

includes the time to detect the failure, prepare any required servers in the backup site (virtual or

physical), initialize the failed application, and perform the network reconfiguration required to

reroute requests from the original site to the backup site so that the application can be used.

Depending on the application type and backup technique, this may involve additional manual

steps such as verifying the integrity of state or performing application specific data restore

operations, and can require careful scheduling of recovery tasks to be done efficiently.

Performance. For a DR service to be useful it must have a minimal impact on the performance

of each application being protected under failure free operation. DR can impact performance

either directly such as in a synchronous replication case where an application write will not

return until it is committed remotely, or indirectly by simply consuming disk and network

bandwidth resources which otherwise the application could use.

Consistency. The DR service must ensure that after a failure occurs the application can be

restored to a consistent state. This may require the DR mechanism to be application specific to

ensure that all relevant state is properly replicated to the backup site. In other cases the DR

system may assume that the application will keep a consistent copy of its important state on disk

and use a disk replication scheme to create consistent copies at the backup site. It is important

that the primary and backup sites are geographically separated in order to ensure that a single

disaster will not impact both sites. This geographic separation adds its own challenges since

increased distance leads to higher WAN bandwidth costs and will incur greater network latency.

Increased roundtrip latency directly impacts application response time when using synchronous
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replications. Asynchronous techniques can improve performance over longer distances, but can

lead to greater data loss during a disaster.

Disaster recovery planning is a subset of a larger process known as business continuity

planning and includes planning for resumption of applications, data, hardware, electronic

communications (such as networking) and other IT infrastructure. A business continuity plan

(BCP) includes planning for non-IT related aspects such as key personnel, facilities, crisis

communication and reputation protection, and should refer to the disaster recovery plan (DRP)

for IT related infrastructure recovery/continuity. IT disaster recovery control measures can be

classified into the following three types: (1) Preventive measures - Controls aimed at preventing

an event from occurring. (2) Detective measures - Controls aimed at detecting or discovering

unwanted events. (3) Corrective measures - Controls aimed at correcting or restoring the system

after a disaster or an event.

A business continuity action plan is a document that contains and controls critical

information a business needs to stay running in spite of adverse events. A business continuity

plan is also called an emergency plan. A good business continuity plan should clearly state the

business’s essential functions in writing. An information technology disaster recovery plan (IT

DRP) should be developed in conjunction with the business continuity plan. Priorities and

recovery time objectives for information technology should be developed during the business

impact analysis. Technology recovery strategies should be developed to restore hardware,

applications and data in time to meet the needs of the business recovery. The document should

identify and prioritize which systems and processes must be sustained and provide the necessary

information for maintaining them. A business continuity action plan should include the

following information:

1. Employer Contact List.

2. Key Supplier/Vendor Information.

3. Key Contacts.

4. Prioritized List of Critical Business Functions.

5. Recovery Locations.

6. Copies of Essential Records.

7. Critical Telephone Numbers.

8. Critical Supplies List.

9. Inventory of the Company’s Equipment/Machinery/Vehicles.

10. Inventory of the Company’s Computer Equipment and Software.

11. List of Communication Venues.

12. Data Response Plan.

Data replication is the process of copying data from one location to another. Replication

helps an organization pass up to date copies of its data in the event of a disaster. Replication can

take place at the host, in the array, or over the network. Replication can take place over a storage

area network, local area network, or local wide area network, as well as in a cloud. Cloud

computing platforms are well suited for offering DR as a service due to their use of automated

virtual platforms that can minimize the recovery time after a failure. For disaster recovery (DR)

purposes, replication typically occurs between a primary storage location and a secondary offsite

location. Host based replication uses servers to copy data from one site to another and is

designed to allow a virtual machine to continue to function in times of disaster. With array based

application, compatible storage arrays use built in software to automatically copy data between

arrays. Network based data replication requires a switch or appliance between storage arrays and

servers. There are two types of data replications. Synchronous replication takes place in real

time, and asynchronous replication is time delayed. Synchronous replication is preferred for
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applications with low recovery time objectives that cannot lose data, but it is more expensive and

creates latency that slows down the primary application. Asynchronous replication is designed

to work over distances and requires less bandwidth. Because there is a delay in the copy time,

the two copies of data may not always be identical with asynchronous replication. Replication is

often combined with snapshot technology which allows users to replicate data periodically while

still being able to roll back to a specific point in time for recovery. Deduplication, which

eliminates redundant data is also frequently combined with replication for DR and backup.

Server virtualization is a driver for disaster recovery because virtualization reduces the

number of servers required for a disaster recovery site. Virtual servers are stored as files or

virtual machine (VM) images on the host, and can be moved by copying the VM image file and

booting it on another host while physical servers require the same hardware at the DR site. Tools

for replicating virtual machines include PHD Virtual esXpress, Vizioncore vReplicator or

VMware Site Recovery Manager if your array supports it, or tools built into applications such as

Oracle that replicate data between servers. The cloud also fits with replication, because it can

remove cost and complexity from disaster recovery. It alleviates the need to acquire and manage

an off-site location. Host-based replication is generally the best fit for disaster recovery through

the cloud because storage array and network based replication require devices at the source and

target locations. Host based replication lets you move data from standard servers in your

environment to the provider's servers off-site.

A critical aspect of disaster recovery planning is often overlooked. Disaster recovery

testing. Disaster recovery testing is the only reliable way for an organization to gauge the

effectiveness of its disaster preparedness, and data recovery planning. Simply verifying that a

backup can be restored is not enough. There are significant differences between data restoration

and business continuity. Disaster recovery testing covers a range of services. It must
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demonstrate the ability to recover data, as well as quickly return of applications infrastructure

components and mission critical systems to an operational state following a disaster. IT pros

must work to develop an effective DR test plan while establishing criteria for evaluating the

metrics that are gathered during recovery testing. DR testing also allows you to conduct planned

maintenance, offers a training opportunity for staff, and creates awareness within an organization

about disaster recovery procedures.

Prior to selecting a disaster recovery strategy, a disaster recovery planner first refers to

their organization's business continuity plan which should indicate the key metrics of recovery

point objective (RPO) and recovery time objective (RTO) for various business processes (such as

the process to run payroll, generate an order, etc.). The metrics specified for the business

processes are then mapped to the underlying IT systems and infrastructure that support those

processes.

Recovery strategies should be developed for Information technology (IT) systems,

applications and data. This includes networks, servers, desktops, laptops, wireless devices, data

and connectivity. Priorities for IT recovery should be consistent with the priorities for recovery

of business functions and processes that were developed during the business impact analysis. IT

resources required to support time sensitive business functions and processes should also be

identified. The recovery time for an IT resource should match the recovery time objective for the

business function or process that depends on the IT resource. Information technology systems

require hardware, software, data and connectivity. Without one component of the “system,” the

system may not run. Therefore, recovery strategies should be developed to anticipate the loss of

one or more of the following system components: Computer room environment (secure

computer room with climate control, conditioned and backup power supply, etc.). Hardware

(networks, servers, desktop and laptop computers, wireless devices and peripherals).
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Connectivity to a service provider (fiber, cable, wireless, etc.). Software applications

(electronic data interchange, electronic mail, enterprise resource management, office

productivity, etc.), and data and restoration.

Some business applications cannot tolerate any downtime. They utilize dual data centers

capable of handling all data processing needs, which run in parallel with data mirrored or

synchronized between the two centers. This is a very expensive solution that only larger

companies can afford. However, there are other solutions available for small to medium sized

businesses with critical business applications and data to protect.

Internal Recovery Strategies.

Many businesses have access to more than one facility. Hardware at an alternate facility can be

configured to run similar hardware and software applications when needed. Assuming data is

backed up off-site or data is mirrored between the two sites, data can be restored at the alternate

site and processing can continue.

Vendor Supported Recovery Strategies.

There are vendors that can provide “hot sites” for IT disaster recovery. These sites are fully

configured data centers with commonly used hardware and software products. Subscribers may

provide unique equipment or software either at the time of disaster or store it at the hot site ready

for use. Data streams, data security services and applications can be hosted and managed by

vendors. This information can be accessed at the primary business site or any alternate site using

a web browser. If an outage is detected at the client site by the vendor, the vendor automatically

holds data until the client’s system is restored. These vendors can also provide data filtering and

detection of malware threats, which enhance cyber security. Data streams, data security services

and applications can be hosted and managed by vendors. This information can be accessed at the

primary business site or any alternate site using a web browser. If an outage is detected at the
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client site by the vendor, the vendor automatically holds data until the client’s system is restored.

These vendors can also provide data filtering and detection of malware threats, which enhance

cyber security.

A backup and restore strategy contains a backup portion and a restore portion. The backup

part of the strategy defines the types and frequencies of backups, the nature and speed of the

hardware that is required for them, how backups are to be tested, and where and how backup

media is supposed to be stored (including security considerations). The restore part of the

strategy defines who is responsible for performing restores and how restores should be

performed to meet the goals for availability of the database and for minimizing loss. Backup and

restore operations occur within the context of a recovery model. A recovery model is a database

property that controls how the transaction log is managed. The recovery model also determines

what types of backups and what restore scenarios are supported for the database. Typically a

database uses either the simple recovery model or the full recovery model. The full recovery

model can be supplemented by switching to the bulk logged recovery model before a bulk

operation.

Test the backup and recovery procedures thoroughly before a real failure occurs. Testing

helps ensure that you have the required backup to recover from various failures, that the

procedures are clearly defined and documented, and can be executed smoothly and quickly by

any qualified operator. Perform regular database and transaction log backups to minimize the

amount of lost data. Backup both system and user databases. Maintain system logs in a secure

manner. Keep records of all service packs installed in Microsoft and SQL server. Keep records

of network libraries used and the security mode. A documented copy of the backup and restore

procedures should be kept in a run book.

In addition to preparing for the need to recover systems, organizations also implement

precautionary measures with the objective of preventing a disaster in the first place. These may

include: (1) Local mirrors of systems and/or data and use of disk protection technology such as

RAID. (2) Surge protectors to minimize the effect of power surges on delicate electronic

equipment. (3) Use of an uninterruptible power supply (UPS) and/or backup generator to keep

systems going in the event of a power failure. (4) Fire prevention/mitigation systems such as

alarms and fire extinguishers, and (5) Anti-virus software and other security measures. Recent

research supports the idea that implementing a more holistic pre-disaster planning approach is

more cost-effective in the long run. Every $1 spent on hazard mitigation (such as a disaster

recovery plan) saves society $4 in response and recovery costs. As IT systems have become

increasingly critical to the smooth operation of a company, and arguably the economy as a

whole, the importance of ensuring the continued operation of those systems, and their rapid

recovery, has increased. For example, of companies that had a major loss of business data, 43%

never reopen and 29% close within two years. As a result, preparation for continuation or

recovery of systems needs to be taken very seriously. This involves a significant investment of

time and money with the aim of ensuring minimal losses in the event of a disruptive event.

If a disaster recovery plan does not already exist, it will be necessary to initiate the

preparation of the first version of such a plan. In order to initiate a planning project for the first

time, the board and/or top level management would normally receive a proposal. Projects as

important as DRP development should be approved at the highest level to ensure that the

required level of commitment, resources and management attention are applied to the process.

The proposal should present the reasons for undertaking the project, and could include some or

all of the following:

Increased dependency by the business over recent years on computerized production and

sales delivery mechanisms, thereby creating increased risk of loss of normal services.

Increased dependency by the business over recent years on computerized information

systems.

Increased recognition of the impact that a serious incident could have on the business.

Need to establish a formal process to be followed when a disaster occurs.

An intention to lower costs or losses arising from serious incidents.

Increased likelihood of inadequate IT and information security safeguards.

Need to develop effective backup and recovery strategies to mitigate the impact of

disruptive events.

Avoidance of business failure from disruptive incidents.

It should not be forgotten that data backup and recovery are not the same. For one thing,

the backup software can fail, or the person responsible for backing up the data can fail. Backing

up data without recovery in mind is tantamount to not backing up the data at all. There are other

steps that have to be taken in order to successfully restore the data in an event where it is needed.

Steps like assembling the right recovery environment, (the right operating system, servers, and

storage), and the right people, procedures and tools to bring back the backed up data. Backup

software can fail. Data has to be backed up as if it will absolutely be needed one day. From a

backup perspective, the main concern is not restoration, it is to back up data as quickly as

possible. Getting a secure copy of the data backed up at an offsite location is only the first step of

disaster recovery. A second step requires having the right recovery system connected to the data,

which means a need for the right servers, storage, hypervisors, and operating system in the

recovery environment. Basically, the recovery environment needs to reflect the production

environment. This is not an easy step, as there are many changes that occur daily in the
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production environment that IT staffs are frequently too busy to capture. The last step is having

the right people, processes, and tools needed to recover at the time when they are needed. All of

this is to say that data back up and disaster recovery are not the same, but both are necessary for

long term business technology resiliency. Having a recovery mindset is a necessity, which

means backing up data according to recovery strategy, connecting the right recovery systems to

the properly backed up data, and creating a programmatic approach to recovery by positioning

with the right people, right processes, right tools, and making sure that they are all available at

the right time.

Intrusion Prevention Systems.

In response to the changing threat landscape, Network Intrusion Prevention Systems were

developed to provide advanced protection beyond that offered by firewalls and Intrusion

Detection Systems (IDS). Firewalls and IDS provides security but do not provide the kind of

protection that an IPS provides. IPS is a technology that provides security for computer systems

with features that are effective in facing threats in their advance stage. IPS has the ability to

detect attacks whether they are known or unknown. IPS is also a network security device that

monitors network and/or system activities for unwanted behavior and can interact to prevent

these activities. IPS is considered an important component in ant IT system defense. IPS

protects from denial of service attacks (DOS) and prevents intrusions that target software

applications. It is designed to operate completely invisible on a network. IPS products do not

typically claim an IP address, but can respond directly to any traffic in a variety of ways.

Intrusion Prevention Systems are considered as extensions of Intrusion Detection Systems

because both monitor network traffic and/or system activities for malicious activity. The main

difference between the two systems is unlike IDS, IPSs are placed in-line and are able to actively

prevent and block intrusions that are detected. More specifically IPS can take such actions as
BACKUP AND DISASTER RECOVERY 15

sending an alarm, dropping malicious packets, resetting the connection and/or blocking traffic

from the offending IP address. IPS can also correct Cyclic Redundancy Check errors,

unfragment packet streams, prevent TCP sequencing issues, and clean up unwanted transport and

network layer options. IPS can be classified into four different types. Network based intrusion

prevention systems (NIPS), monitors the entire network for suspicious traffic by analyzing

protocol activity. Wireless intrusion prevention systems (WIPS) monitors a wireless network

for suspicious traffic by analyzing wireless network protocols. Network behavioral analysis

(NBA) examines network traffic to identify threats that generate unusual traffic flows, such as

distributed denial of service (DDos) attacks, certain forms of malware and policy violations.

Host based intrusion prevention system (HIPS) is an installed software package which monitors

a single host for suspicious activity, by analyzing events occurring within that host. The

majority of intrusion prevention systems utilizes one of three detection methods. Signature-

Based Detection monitors packets in the network and compares the packets with pre-configured

and pre-determined attack patterns known as signatures. Statistical Anomaly Based Detection

determines the normal network activity, like what sort of bandwidth is generally used, what

protocols are used, what parts and devices generally connect to each other, and alerts the

administrator or user when traffic is detected that is anomaly (not usual). Stateful Protocol

Analysis Detection is the method which identifies deviations of protocol states by comparing

observed events with predetermined profiles of generally accepted definitions of benign activity.

IPS is a very effective technique to protect databases and networks from unauthorized users.

Like other developments it has its limitations, but the limitations are heavily outweighed by the

advantages. Combining network and host IPS techniques to protect databases and networks

creates a robust defensive prevention. Combining IPS IDS, and firewall technologies will
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provide a strong defense line which can protect systems from any and every attack. It is an

outstanding protection and prevention scheme for any computer.

For the medical record company disaster recovery plan, I would have a generator in place

in case of power outages, I would use external hard drives and written logs as on-site back-up

with written procedures to follow, and an off-site cloud service as a major backup database in

case of a severe disaster. Backup recovery initial information would include records of employer

contact list, key supplier/vendor information, key contacts, prioritized list of critical business

functions, recovery locations, copies of essential records, critical telephone numbers, critical

supplies list, inventory of the company’s equipment/machinery/vehicles, inventory of the

company’s computer equipment and software, list of communication venues, and the technical

aspects of the recovery procedure. This would be done at all four location with the major backup

system located at an off-site cloud storage. All four offices would have an in-house IT technician

who would be responsible for backing up the database system regularly and who would also be

comfortable with the disaster recovery procedure. There would also be two other company

employees with the knowledge of what procedures needs to be followed in order to obtain a

successful database recovery at all times in case of an absence. This disaster recovery plan

would be implemented at all four offices.

My decision on choosing external hard drives as choice backup media is because in the

event of a small natural disaster, the hardware, software, and personnel will all be readily

available. This is all the office really needs. A cloud platform will be in place in case of a major

disaster, and just as not needing a generator the same size as a hospital, an elaborate backup

system would be too cost effective and maybe even time effective as going through complicated

recovery procedures would just make the recovery time more difficult to achieve. Each office

would have a database with updated backup information and recovery procedures for all four of
BACKUP AND DISASTER RECOVERY 17

the offices. This would not be a hard task to accomplish when there is an employee hired

specifically for the task. I would use a firewall system, an IDS system, and an IPS system

combined for protection from intrusion threats bought on by hackers, cyber-threats and from

employee related mistakes. This is an area that has to be given priority because the database has

personal identity information on employees and clients which carries judicial legalities that could

be just as damaging to the company. When recovery is taken into consideration, personal and

financial information might already be in the wrong hands. The damage to everyone involved

would be tremendous and very time consuming in an endeavor to repair. A rule of thumb is

when creating a disaster recovery plan, implement a recovery plan compatible to the business

needs.
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Woods, T, Cecchet, E, Ramakrisran, K, Shenoy, P, Murwe, J, & Venkataramani, A (Eds.).

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http:// www.disasterrecovery guide.com/why.htm. Copyright The Disaster Recovery Guide

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