The Daily Backup

Are your backups working?

To spur my muse, I have been asking clients and friends for topics for my blog. My first topic comes from Melissa Prandi of Prandi Property Management in San Rafael. She writes “Backups are important – how do we know they work?” This is a great question and certainly falls in line with previous articles in this blog. And at first the answer seems simple.

You know your backups work when you successfully restore data from them.

So that brings up the question, “Do you have to lose data to find out if your backups are working?” And the answer, of course, is no you don’t. You can test. But testing is just part of an overall plan. First and foremost you need policies and procedures that mitigate the loss of data.

Any good backup plan has four elements:

· A methodology.

· Criteria for backup.

· A schedule of frequency.

· A monitoring system.

What is methodology? Simply put. It is the software, hardware and media you use to create your backup. It can be as simple as Windows backup using a cdrom. Or it can be as complex as multi-server software writing to multiple tape cartridges. What is more important, you must know that these three components are working. If you are using tape cartridges, for example, you must plan for their wearing out. (See my earlier blog on tape life cycles.).

For criteria you need to specify what you want to backup. It doesn’t make sense to back up data you do not need and fail to backup the data you do. Yet, I have seen this numerous times. Small firms often allow all employees full access to their data drive. Employees add and remove folders at will; but no one updates the backup schedule; and critical files get missed.

And that leads us to scheduling. You need to decide how often you back up, whether you are rotating media and whether you want multiple copies of data. Many backup programs, allow for daily weekly and monthly backups where weekly and monthly backups are stored off-site.

With all this in place, you need to monitor that it is happening. You need procedures in place that force you to check your backups against the criteria and the schedule. Have you ever gone into a public restroom in a restaurant or airport and seen the log sheets where the employees initial that they have checked the facilities for cleanliness and supplies? You should have a similar checklist when it comes to backups.

So to answer Melissa’s question, you know your backups are working when:

· You know that your media and devices are sound.

· You know by checking your logs that your backups are succeeding.

· You know by checking your criteria that you are getting the right data.

· You know by test restores, that the data is accessible and readable.

To learn more about test restores, read Marcel Brown’s answer to the same question.

Saying Yes to Windows 7?

The most frequently asked questions I have heard recently concern Windows 7. The questions range from “should I upgrade” to “is it worth it”. My answer always is if your machine is compatible and you are running Vista, then by all means upgrade. It is faster, more secure and easier to use.

The caveat is, of course, “is your machine compatible”. To answer that you can download the windows upgrade advisor. That is located here:

 http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/get/upgrade-advisor.aspx .

But it is not just your machine you have to consider. There are also your peripherals and your applications. Will Windows 7 work with your printer or your smart phone? Will you have to purchase a newer version of your favorite software? Here is a Microsoft site that can give you a clue:

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/compatibility/en-us/default.aspx

While Windows 7 makes it easier than ever before to upgrade, upgrading an OS always brings with it some hidden consequences. So, if your machine is running XP and you are happy with its performance, then do not go to the expense of an upgrade. Wait until you are ready to purchase a new machine. Buy it with Windows 7.

But if you do decide to upgrade, remember to make a backup first!

Here are a few of the major manufacturers’ web pages devoted to upgrading.

Dell:

http://content.dell.com/us/en/bsd/d/operating-systems/windows7_smb_faq.aspx

Gateway:   

http://www.gateway.com/windows7upgrade/

HP:

http://www.hp.com/country/us/en/mda/windows7/upgrade/tools.html

Lenovo:

http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/WIN7-HOME.html

 Sony:    

http://esupport.sony.com/US/perl/support-info.pl?info_id=519

Toshiba:

http://laptops.toshiba.com/windows7-features

Interval's End

There has been quite an interval since I last posted to this blog.

I suppose I could use the excuse of “writer’s block; but that would not be the truth. The truth is that It just was not a priority. Add to that my inherent sense of privacy, and you get inertia. But marketing professionals are telling me that I must blog to survive in this economy. So blog I will.

When I started this blog, I provided off-site backup services, hence the name, “The Daily Backup”. I no longer provide a server dedicated to remote backup. Instead, I act as an agent for MozyPro. They offer my clients economies of scale I could not. I still like the name, “The Daily Backup”, however. It smacks of the old newspaper days. It has the same ring as “Post-Intelligencer” or “The Daily Telegraph”. So I will still use it. But, I will not limit myself to the topic of data backup. Instead I will ramble on about things relevant to technology as it affects you, my readers and my clients.

To that end, I ask that you let me know what is on your mind. What would you like me to write about? What questions do you have? You can post a topic here; or you can email me directly from the following link, www.hbsco.com.

Solving Sudoku

I have been playing with Sudoku puzzles lately. The easiest are just logic problems. Each number entered pinpoints the following number. They offer no possible deviations. They have the most clues. Harder puzzles have fewer clues; with the hardest puzzles having the least amount.

The latter are the puzzles that resemble a maze. They contain multiple choices. In solving them, I often make the wrong choice; and sixty numbers later, I realize my mistake. When I first started solving Sudoku puzzles, I would erase everything and start over. Then I started making backups.

If I am solving a puzzle on line, I will print out my answers to the point of the decision; note the decision on the print out; then proceed to the next decision point, an obvious error or the solution. I do this each time I have to guess. (If I am solving a puzzle on paper, then I recreate the answers on different sheets.) If there are multiple decision trees and I see that I am wrong, I return to the latest first and try the alternate course. If that doesn’t work I move to the next branch up the tree.

Using multiple backups of my solution attempts, allows me to solve even the most difficult puzzles in the least amount of time.

Using multiple backups in your business makes sense too. There are two ways to make multiple backups; and I recommend both. The first is to have several snapshots of your data. This allows you to roll data back to a previous point in time. If, for example, an employee deletes a file on Tuesday and you do not discover it until Friday, then having a backup set for each day of the week allows you to restore that file.

The second form of multiple backups is to backup the same data onto different sets of media (e.g. tape and cd) or to a remote site. This insures against media failure. Backing up to a remote site also protects against loss of data due to disaster or theft. For more information on remote back up, visit www.remotebackup-at-hbs.com. 

A backup tape's lifecycle

I recently purchased new cleaning tapes and backup media for my tape drive. When it comes to cleaning my drive and retiring old tapes, I am ultra-conservative. I clean the drive religiously; and retire my tapes at about 50% of their life cycle.

However I realize that many companies can not take that approach and must get the most out of their media. So, I started researching the topic. I found an excellent overview at www.backupassist.com/downloads/tapedriveselection.pdf. It is a highly informative article; and worth reading, despite the built in advertisements. (One of my clients uses Backup Assist on a Windows 2003 server. They are pleased with it.) However, it doesn’t tell me how many times I can expect to safely use the actual tape. To that end, I found a nifty chart at www.imation.com/support/pdfs/tape_lifecycle.pdf.

This chart is pretty self explanatory. You look up your media, check the column, ‘GB (native) Stored over life’ and divide the number found there by the number of GB you store each time you use the tape. Next divide that number by the number of times you will use that same tape in a year. The answer gives you how many years you can theoretically use that tape.

Lifecycle in years = (GB Stored Capacity/GB stored per use)

                                              Number of uses per year

The Daily Backup is the official blog of HBS Consulting, an online backup provider.

Back up what you produce

My clients often ask me what data they should back up. My standard reply is they should only backup what they produce. For example, if you use QuickBooks, then you produce the file, “yourcompany.qbb”. You do not produce qbw32.exe; so you do not need to back it up. You already have a backup, your installation cd.

Applications and operating systems do not change. There may be downloadable service packs or patches that update the application or o/s; but they are readily available and do not need backup. If you want, you can duplicate your application and o/s cds and store them off site (I do); but your originals are your backup.

On the typical Windows machine, you will want to back up the “My Documents” folder, any folder you created and any sub-folder within the “Program Files” folder that contains data you produced. If you use Outlook Express, you will want to back up the files contained in the folder,

“Documents and Settings\Your User Name\Application Data\Microsoft\Address Book”

and the files contained in the folder,

“Documents and Settings\Your User Name\Local Settings\Application Data\Identities.”

If you use Outlook, back up all files with the file extension “.pst.” By default these are in the folder,

“Documents and Settings\Your User Name\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook.”

When you open “Explore” (right click on the start button, click on “Explore”), you may not see the “Application Data” folder or the “Local Settings” folder. If not, click on the menu item “Tools”; and select “Folder Options…” Click on the “View” tab. Click on “Show hidden files and folders.” Uncheck “Hide extensions for known file types.” You will now see both folders.

Measuring Risk

A few weeks ago, I reinstalled a network in a client’s home. A local creek had flooded and deposited two feet of water and mud in his study. I asked him if he had flood insurance and he replied “No, it is too expensive.” I, then, asked him if he had done anything to shore up his property to prevent a recurrence. Again he replied, “No.”. He explained that the creek only flooded if there were the right combination of rainfall, high winds and high tides. This confluence of events predictably occurs once every twenty five or more years. He believed he would have moved before he suffered similar damage and that the cost of prevention would exceed the cost of repair.

The conversation started me thinking again about the measurement of risk. That is the basis of actuarial science; and I won’t pretend to know much about that. But I do know that it is possible to estimate loss and to, therefore, project the impact of that loss on a business.

For example, you know that the projected lifetime of a personal computer is three to five years. You also know that all hard drives fail. That means that some time between three to five years after the purchase of a pc, the probability of hard drive failure is at its greatest. If you only use the pc as a terminal and do not store anything on it, then your risk of loss is much less than if you use that pc to store all your business and personal data. In the first instance, you merely have to replace the hard drive and reinstall the operating system and applications. In the latter, you have to replace the hard drive, the applications, and the data. This is much harder, because the data is unique to you and only available from you. The hours you spent creating that data are what is really at risk. Add to that the potential for lost business during the system down time, employee idleness, etc; and you begin to get a true measure of your risk.

Once you have a viable number for potential loss, you can begin to define the measures you are willing to take to prevent that loss or minimize its impact. Like my client, you may determine that the risk is not worth the expense of prevention. Or you may decide that you need to establish backup routines or other measures to minimize or eliminate the loss.

Measuring risk, therefore, becomes the first step towards managing it.

To learn more about risk management for small businesses, go to:

www.remotebackup-at-hbs.com/pdfdown.aspx.

Planning for Survival

I recently finished Nathaniel Philbrick’s book, In the Heart of the Sea. It recounts the sinking of the whale ship, Essex. This tale is widely known as the basis of the novel, Moby Dick. More than that it is the story of men cast at sea with minimal food and water, who resorted to cannibalism to survive. Pritchard tells of their plight dramatically and without sensationalism. I finished the book contemplating that the folly that defined this tragedy was a folly similar to one that causes the decline of many small businesses. These fishermen entered unknown waters with little information and no plan for contingencies. No one could have foreseen a whale ramming their boat. But boats do sink; and the captain of the Essex should have had a plan for survival.

When it comes to technology and computers, how many small businesses forge into new technologies with out a plan for a roll-back or without adequate preparation or training? I recently received a call from a business to restore their database. Their server had lost its mirrored drives. The machine was several years old; and the application it ran was even older – dos based. Not only had the hard drives failed, the tape drive also failed; and the owner could not find his original backup software disks. His version was several generations old and no longer on the market.

The owner had known he needed to upgrade; but everything worked; and he was having a hard time choosing a new application. He felt secure that he had mirrored drives and a tape backup system. However, he did not have a routine in place for checking the health of his system. Disaster struck; he lost several days data entry. And he had to find a new business solution immediately. Instead of a planned investment with a comfortable roll-out; he found himself hurriedly installing new hardware and software He was transitioning without adequate preparation or training. His business suffered and so did his customers.

What could this business owner have done differently?

·        He could have monitored his systems better and recognized their lifespan.

·        He could have kept better track of his original software media

·        Knowing the potential lifespan, he could have budgeted for his system upgrade.

·        He could have put more effort into his search for replacement systems.

·        He could have set a timeline for completing the upgrade.

·        He could have put together a budget that allowed for training and testing.

What should this business owner be doing now?

·        He should establish routines for monitoring his equipment and patching his operating systems and application software.

·        He should periodically test his backup systems.

·        He should catalog and store the media (disks and cdroms) that will let him rebuild his systems from scratch.

·        He should document his systems.

·        He should utilize an online storage provider to backup his most critical data.

First Post

Last summer, HBS Consulting started offering its clients an online remote backup service. This was prior to the disasters of Katrina and Rita. Being in the San Francisco Bay Area, none of HBS Consulting's clientele suffered directly from these tragedies; but they under-scored the need for disaster planning and preparedness. This blog will concentrate on these issues and any others that may affect the small business owner dealing with today's technology. We will try to be informative and pithy.

For more information about HBS Consulting and its services, click here.

To download a 30 day free trial of our remote backup service, click here.

In the meantime,

Are you backing up your data?