Disaster Recovery Planning for MIP Session 7 (1:30pm-3:00pm) Dennis Guiney, Technical Specialist JMT Consulting Group Background: Bachelor of Science, CIS Microsoft Certified Technical Specialist Microsoft Certified Business Management Solutions Specialist Microsoft Certified Professional After participating in this session, you will be able to: Key Term Understand the issues associated with backing up and restoring MIP data Understand the data storage locations of MIP Know tips and tools for db management Database Engine Software application created to store, manage and manipulate data. Examples: Microsoft SQL Server, Pervasive SQL, Sybase SQL Anywhere, Oracle MIP Supported database platforms: SQL Server 2005 (all editions) SQL Server Express 2005 SQL Server 2008 (all editions) SQL Server Express 2008 MSDE for SQL Server 2000 will not be supported starting with MIP Version 11. MIP version 10.2 ships with SQL Express 2005, the windows requirements for that version are: Operating System Requirements: Windows XP with Service Pack 2 or later Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional with SP4 Microsoft Windows 2000 Server with Service Pack 4 or later Windows Server 2003 with Service Pack 1 or later Requires.Net Framework 2.0 IE 6.0 with Service Pack 1 or newer Microsoft link for latest info: http://www.microsoft.com/sql/prodinfo/sysreqs/default.mspx 1
MIP DATA What is it, where is it? MIP data is stored in a SQL Server database. The location can vary from system to system due to the flexibility of SQL Server, but the default installation location is: C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL.1\MSSQL\Data Data files exist in pairs with an mdf, and ldf extension. It is important when installing/upgrading to consider the location of the SQL databases to allow for growth, and backups. 2
MIP Tools: Backup/Restore MIP has a built in backup utility that allows users with proper security permissions, to backup their database at any moment. All users with administrative rights are asked each time they exit the software if they want to backup the database. What this utility does is to create a file with an nps extension that is a backup of the company database. The tool will allow the selection of the NPSQLSYS database, and any other company databases from a dropdown list, to be backed up. The backup will use the default location of : Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL.1\MSSQL\Data\Backup unless the ellipse is clicked, and a different location is browsed to. There is also a Restore utility that is used to restore a backup created from within the MIP software. The menu is available as seen below: NOTE: The built-in Backup/Restore tools in no way substitute for, or replace the network backup managed by the IT staff of the organization. 3
Data Integrity Checks: DI checks can be run within the Administration module using the following menu options: The list will vary based on the modules you are licensed for. The procedure is to click the three check button to select all, then click start. NOTE: All users must be out of the system to perform the DI Checks. Data Consolidation (Purge): Information to be found in Sage KB article: 281633. It is recommended to discuss with JMT consultant or Sage. IMPORTANT NOTES: Consolidate Transaction History replaces old detailed transactions which contained audit-trail information with new consolidated transactions which have none of that audit trail information. If you consolidate on a monthly basis, you may not get as much of a reduction in the size of your database as you might expect because, for example, an account with a single transaction in it for a 4
month will have that single transaction replaced with another monthly consolidated transaction. However, if you consolidate the same database on a Yearly basis you would see more reduction in size as the same account that had a single transaction in each of 12 months would see those 12 transactions replaced by a single yearly consolidated transaction. Network Backup: Network backup practices vary among organizations, but there are some basic premises to be discussed that will allow you to select the strategy that best fits your organization. The questions you want to ask are: - What are our expectations for data restoration if required? (How far back can we go?) - Frequency/Schedule (How often do we back up? When?) - Onsite vs - Offsite Different Types of Backups: When backing up in a scenario where size of the backup job and the time they take is a factor, different types of backups can be used. A Full backup will copy all files and system data to the backup media. It allows for the complete restore of all data from one single tape. Differential, Incremental and Daily are partial backups and are designed to reduce amount of data backed-up to the media, resulting in faster backups. To restore data using one of these backups, the last Full backup tape will also be required, along with any other partial backups since the last Full backup. For example, if Full backups are performed on Mondays, and Incremental backups on the other days, to restore last Thursday's data, 4 tapes would be required (Monday full + Tuesday incremental + Wednesday incremental + Thursday incremental). 5
The problem with partial backups is the requirement for multiple tapes when restoring data. If any of these tapes is faulty, then the restore cannot be guaranteed to proceed correctly. Clearly, if all your data can fit onto a single tape, performing full backups all the time is the safest strategy. Tape Rotation System: In a tape rotation system, multiple tapes are organized into a tape backup pool, or tape backup library to provide you with data recovery capabilities, whilst allowing for selected backup tapes to be stored off-site for added security. Different tapes are used for different days' backups according to a predefined system. Five tape rotation one per day The simplest tape rotation scheme is to have one tape for each day of the working week. Tapes are labeled: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. You can restore data from any one of the tapes in your library or in this case, any day in the past the week. This strategy requires only five tapes, but only provides one week's data backup history. Grandfather Father Son (GFS) The grandfather father son schedule is the most widely used method, and involves backing up data in the following way: daily on the son tapes weekly on the father tapes monthly on the grandfather tapes This system is far more powerful than the five tape rotation, but requires more tapes. This strategy provides you with the ability to restore data from the last week, plus any Monday over the last month, plus any month for as many monthly tapes as you have. Variations on this scheme are 6
available, and provide a trade-off between the number of tapes required, and the number of monthly tapes available. Tower of Hanoi The Tower of Hanoi a complex strategy where five tapes are used called A, B, C, D, E. A is used every other day, B is used every 4 th day, C is used every 8 th day, D and E are used every 16 th day, alternating. This ensures that data is available from the last day, 2 days ago, and three other times in history. The range of history of backup is dependent on where one is in the cycle. This method is clearly confusing, but has the advantage of only requiring 5 tapes. Unless aided by software, this method is not recommended because it is prone to human error. Pitfalls to avoid in a tape backup system There are several pitfalls that can reduce the effectiveness of any tape backup system: Faulty media if you run the same tapes for years, eventually they will wear out. However, your backup software should be able to detect faulty tapes when it verifies the data written to the tape after each backup. 7
Human error if you place the wrong tape in the tape drive for a backup, you'll obviously disrupt the system. There are ways of minimizing human error, which includes using software such as BackupAssist, to email your administrator/secretary daily, and instruct him/her to place a certain tape in the drive. Insecure storage of tapes it is critical that your tapes be stored in a secure location such as a fireproof safe, and that your monthly, quarterly and yearly tapes be stored off site. Please note that if you store all your backup tapes next to your file server, and your building gets robbed or burns down, not even the best tape backup library in the world will get your data back. Redundancy It is important to consider the opportunities to create redundant backups of your data. This can be accomplished by adding an external hard drive, and/or an offsite backup service. The critical point is to back up your data, and not have everything in a single location. With the advances in technology backups no longer rely on just a tape system. This can easily, and relatively inexpensively, be supplemented with an external hard drive (or 2), and/or an online backup service. There are also Virtual Server environments that allow a complete image to backed up and restored. Please note the most critical point is to have more than one copy of your data, in more than one location. Software Connection The software you select will impact how MIP databases will be backed up. - SQL databases appear Open to backup software. In order to be backed up, an SQL Agent will be required. - Simulated or Real Database Maintenance Plan An SQL Agent will allow SQL databases to be backed up directly by the backup software. This is the easiest of configurations, but there is a cost for the agent. If you implemented the full version of SQL Server, instead of the free version that ships with MIP, you can configure a database maintenance plan. A database maintenance plan can be configured and scheduled to create backup files of your databases that can be directly backed up by backup software(sans sql agent). It can also be configured to keep the files for a fixed length of time to prevent space issues from developing on the affected hard drives. This is a great advantage to purchasing the full version of SQL, but there is a cost, and is usually only present in an environment where the number of users dictates the installation of the full SQL version. If you are running the SQL Express version, you can simulate a database maintenance plan using documentation and scripts from Sage described in article 282794. The script file will have to be 8
configured for your environment. You will need to modify the path to the databases, and the names for your organization. Once configured, the script can be scheduled to run daily using Windows Scheduler. This method will require additional maintenance to manage the number of files in the designated folder at any one time. Documentation It is imperative that the backup process and means of recovery be documented so anyone with experience can step up in an emergency situation, and get you back online quickly. Test it! You need you add a schedule to periodically test restore data from a backup to a location on your network. This is to validate that the media, software and catalog are all in sync, and dependable. Summary The backup of your MIP data must be integrated into the strategy for the backup of the entire organization. There can be challenges in communication within departments, or with IT consulting agencies, but discussion and documentation of a disaster recovery plan is critical to the data protection of the entire company. Of course JMT is available for any discussion of the backup of your MIP data with your company resources. 9