Re: Which PC for maximum reliability?

John McWilliams wrote:
Jürgen Exner wrote:
In other words: Neither the manufacturer of hardware or software nor
the operating system has any relevance when designing emergency
plans and procedures.

Really! ?? That's quite a bit of news.

Of course one has to think through and design a backup system; it
doesn't happen by itself.

Actually that is step 3 or 4 already. First of all you need a risk analysis.

Do you need to be covered in case your HD crashes? Do you need to be covered
in case building becomes inaccessible? Do you need to be covered in case the
building collapses (and your treasured backup DVD are gone with it)? Do you
need to be covered in case the computer system is lost (stolen, seized by
police, zapped by lightning). Do you need to be covered in case the computer
catches a virus?

Second step is to determine how fast after each of those to be covered
incidents you must be back in business. This is a major cost driving factor,
because hot standby is obviously way more expensive then a cold one-week
rebuild.

But I don't think you have to hire a
consultant, God bless their souls, to design a decent backup plan. At
least not with Macs as the platform.

That depends what you mean by backup plan. If you are talking about
regularly taking a backup of the content of the HD, then you are certainly
right. And it may or may not be easier with a Mac (same as with viruses), I
don't know and I really don't care. However that is a very narrow, usually
too narrow view of an emergency recovery plan.
Example: where do you keep those backups of yours? Not in the same building,
I hope? Chances are, they will be lost together with the original in case of
a fire or natural disaster. Maybe you shouldn't even store them in the same
geographical area, just to thwart the next earth quake. But then again, how
do you access them quickly when you need them?

I can assure you, that designing a failure-tolerant computer system is way
beyond the skills of even most computer experts. Just doing the risk
analysis is anything but trivial. And balancing business needs (or wants)
with cost for e.g. finding the most cost-efficient option for distributed
offsite data backup storage or options for system replacement from
hot-swappable where a standby system just takes over with even the same
IP-address to just order a new computer and reinstall everything is a
challange even for experts. And this part is independant of the OS, no
matter if Windows, Mac, Unix, or some main frame.

The OP wrote "I need my PC to be available, always." Taken literaly this
requires a hot standby system and automated remote data backup. But he won't
get that for only 10000. Therefore his first step should probably be to sit
down and look carefully at his REAL needs.

jue


.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Which PC for maximum reliability?
    ... Do you need to be covered in case the building collapses (and your treasured backup DVD are gone with it)? ... That depends what you mean by backup plan. ... that designing a failure-tolerant computer system is way beyond the skills of even most computer experts. ... And balancing business needs with cost for e.g. finding the most cost-efficient option for distributed offsite data backup storage or options for system replacement from hot-swappable where a standby system just takes over with even the same IP-address to just order a new computer and reinstall everything is a challange even for experts. ...
    (rec.photo.digital)
  • Re: Sql 2000 Maintenance Plan not deleting old transaction logs
    ... Did you include any databases in simple recovery in that plan? ... account is the security context for jobs, ... delete an expired backup. ... I'd rather not have to delete these extra backup files manually or with an extraneous script. ...
    (microsoft.public.sqlserver.tools)
  • msdb refuses to back up w/ plan
    ... I've created a Mx plan for the system databases. ... Part of it is a complete backup. ... See the SQL Server error log for more ... Mx plan would fail for just this one database, when I can back it up ...
    (microsoft.public.sqlserver.server)
  • Re: Backing up SBS 2003 for Disaster Recovery
    ... You will also need a backup with some disaster recover plan on how to use ... Modern backup software gives you specific DR capabilities. ... backup job that backs up the whole server, and then it will provide a CD ... you should test your plan. ...
    (microsoft.public.windows.server.general)
  • Re: Move DNS services to another 2000 AS
    ... > the DNS setup and copying it to the new machine. ... its only a text file to backup. ... Not knowing how far along you are with designing or if you took any classes ... Chapter 9 - Designing the Active Directory Structure: ...
    (microsoft.public.win2000.dns)
Loading