Week 12 Networking

Windows Server 2003 Disaster Management and Prevention.

This week we looked at disaster recovery and management.  In general this talks about the preparation of problems related to the normal operation of the network, websites/Services or the PC's/Hardware within it.  We looked at minimising downtime for the company after a problem or disaster and methods of preparing for the best method to do this.

  In regards to preparation for disaster recovery most offices have a pre documented plan that should be followed before during and after a disaster, the preparation could involve things such as backing up to Hot Warm and Cold sites having complete backups on the Hot site this would be PC's images, Websites backups, FTP site Backups, Any documents or userfiles and basically anything and everything is backed up to a hot site.  A warm site does not contain as much detailed information just enough to get the PC's and Network back up and running without all the important data being needed. And a cold site can either be used as a remote backup for websites files and content or could also be used for a development server for running new and updated code testing.

During a disaster such as Loss of network access, Power failure, Fire flood or Earthquake procedures should again be followed as documented by the company but there is also a hierarchical approach to resolving a slightly less critical situation such as a user unplugging a network cable or power plug for either network hardware or a POF(point of failure) in the network of PC's/Devices. These things should be looked at first, then moving onto services on the network to ensure things like the network card, Web site service, FTP service and any other vital services have not been altered in any way and then the files and folders of the websites, FTP locations and if need be individual OS files on client PC's.  In point form that looks like this

• Check cables Power supply and physical connectivity
• Check OS network Connectivity in server
• Check Services are still running in server and are responsive
• Check to see that all needed files are in correct places

If an unreasonable problem is detected and is related to loss of important data either in relation to the working of the service or the content of that service, this is where having complete, partial and relevant backups or Hot, warm or cold sites is vital. To keep downtime low and costs low the most recent backup should be deployed either on the available hardware at the site of the problem or if that is now unavailable at another location as stated in the DRP(Disaster Recovery Plan).

Another preparation could also be what's called a DMZ or De Militarised Zone in the network this is done by keeping the client PC's on a different subnet or part of the network as shown in the pic below, the NOS security of User rights and firewall will prevent any unwanted access.