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SamC
White Water Yakist
3467 Posts |
 Posted - 2004-07-28 : 13:00:50
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| I live in a cozy world. Full nightly backups, coupled with 15 minute transaction logs. If my server dies, I lose maybe 15 minutes of data. I can handle customers angry about a 15 minute loss.I was woken from my slumber the other day when a customer asked me how long it would take to restore operation if our web host was unavailable for a week. The big delay for me to restage a new server at another host would be retrieval of a full backup of the database. I'd be completely reliant on our web host for that data.For the first time, I may have found a requirement for replication?? I'm wondering if that's the way to go or if I should download copies of the DB backup files nightly to another machine. That would taste great, and be less filling too.Thoughts?Sam |
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X002548
Not Just a Number
15586 Posts |
Posted - 2004-07-28 : 13:18:38
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| You need another box....ship the logs to it and apply them as soon as they are received...That way you'll have a warm stand by...Then if the prod boxes dies, just flip the ipBrett8-) |
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tkizer
Almighty SQL Goddess
38200 Posts |
Posted - 2004-07-28 : 13:38:21
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| Do not use replication for this. This is a job for log shipping, whether it be log shipping using Enterprise Edition of SQL Server or your own custom built log shipping.Tara |
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SamC
White Water Yakist
3467 Posts |
Posted - 2004-07-28 : 13:42:57
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| I'll look into log shipping, but first, I've got to get another server... I like our host, but it's got to be another location so I'll start shopping around.Sam |
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X002548
Not Just a Number
15586 Posts |
Posted - 2004-07-28 : 13:51:11
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quote:
Originally posted by SamC
I'll look into log shipping, but first, I've got to get another server... I like our host, but it's got to be another location so I'll start shopping around.Sam
Well you should develop a disaster plan....they call it business continuation here....I guess that's the pc term...Then once it's set up, you need to test it....Like once a year.....Brett8-) |
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tkizer
Almighty SQL Goddess
38200 Posts |
Posted - 2004-07-28 : 13:54:17
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| Yeah we test ours twice a year by bringing up production at the disaster recovery site. We run at that site usually for about 3 weeks. This allows us to make major changes at the primary site as well. What's great is that our disaster recovery site is Las Vegas.Tara |
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X002548
Not Just a Number
15586 Posts |
Posted - 2004-07-28 : 13:57:08
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quote:
Originally posted by tduggan
Yeah we test ours twice a year by bringing up production at the disaster recovery site. We run at that site usually for about 3 weeks. This allows us to make major changes at the primary site as well. What's great is that our disaster recovery site is Las Vegas.Tara
Yeah, Yeah...keep rubbing it in....I can't even get them to send me to PASS this year....$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$But it's ok to fly them over to Japan to do an OFA install...for weeks...Brett8-) |
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SamC
White Water Yakist
3467 Posts |
Posted - 2004-07-28 : 13:58:34
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| I suppose there are good technical reasons to choose a site in Las Vegas. I'm thinking Amsterdam, or Vail. Maybe the Cayman Islands... |
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Kristen
Test
22859 Posts |
Posted - 2004-07-28 : 14:02:30
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| You'll have a big job "flipping the IP" at another host, I fear. And changing the IP pointed to by the DNS will take 48 hours to ripple round the world.We had a disaster some time ago when we changed the holding company for a client's domain name. The plan was to move it to somewhere that gave us easy DNS/MX management etc.Trouble was, although they let us change the IP address at will, they ONLY let us do that AFTER the domain name had been released by the original company and AFTER that effect had rippled round the world - so it tooks 48 hours to get to them, and then another 48 hours for the changes we then made to ripple round the world.To work around this we set up a "web redirect" at the domain holding company, to the IP address of our server; but this in turn had problems because our site had some redirects of its own, using the domain name, which then went back to the domain name holding company.So we set up DEFAULT.ASP to "redirect" to the IP address for the domain, and that solved the problem because everything thereafter based itself on the IP address.We had to do some "break out of frames" stuff in DEFAULT.ASP too.And whilst we had a "Sorry, site is down for maintenance" holding page up Google came calling and that was our Google listing for the next couple of weeks - so don't forgot the META TAG for NOINDEX, NOFOLLOWAll in all you'll probably need to set up a bit of a test plan!Kristen |
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SamC
White Water Yakist
3467 Posts |
Posted - 2005-03-21 : 08:09:03
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quote:
Originally posted by Kristen
You'll have a big job "flipping the IP" at another host, I fear. And changing the IP pointed to by the DNS will take 48 hours to ripple round the world.
I was wondering...It's possible to list two DNS servers. Has anyone ever had the first DNS at the primary site and the 2nd DNS at the secondary site? If the Primary server fails, AND if the primary DNS is up, modify the primary DNS to point to the secondary site. Should take only an hour to do the switch. If the Primary DNS fails, well, then the secondary DNS takes over.Is this doable?Sam |
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jason
Posting Yak Master
164 Posts |
Posted - 2005-03-21 : 12:07:17
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| I don't think so, but you could test it. Name servers cache resolutions. Once they've resolved your IP for a given request, they continue to use that entry until the TTL expires. |
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derrickleggett
Pointy Haired Yak DBA
4184 Posts |
Posted - 2005-03-21 : 14:02:36
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| Before you go down this road Sam, look at what the web host provides. Many of the bigger web hosts provide a redundant hot site solution as part of the package. At a minimum, they should have some type of "geographically significant" DR site even if it'sa shared service DR provider. Email them, find out what they have, and find out the SLA involved in a disaster situation. Or...did I totally miss the ball here. :)MeanOldDBAderrickleggett@hotmail.comWhen life gives you a lemon, fire the DBA. |
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SamC
White Water Yakist
3467 Posts |
Posted - 2005-03-21 : 14:11:45
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quote:
Originally posted by derrickleggett
Or...did I totally miss the ball here. :)
You're right on target. While I haven't asked the hosting company if there is a geographic spread in DNS1 and DNS2, I would take a bet that they're in the same room. One power outage and voila! No DNS. I'll check though.Sam |
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derrickleggett
Pointy Haired Yak DBA
4184 Posts |
Posted - 2005-03-21 : 14:33:53
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| I would get a new webhost then. lol It should at least have redundant circuits to different utility runs.MeanOldDBAderrickleggett@hotmail.comWhen life gives you a lemon, fire the DBA. |
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derrickleggett
Pointy Haired Yak DBA
4184 Posts |
Posted - 2005-03-21 : 14:33:56
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| I would get a new webhost then. lol It should at least have redundant circuits to different utility runs.MeanOldDBAderrickleggett@hotmail.comWhen life gives you a lemon, fire the DBA. |
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SamC
White Water Yakist
3467 Posts |
Posted - 2005-03-21 : 14:49:57
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| I think it's tricker than that. Even though a design may include separate racks, power feeds, routers, DNS servers, network lines, whatever... I've listened to others tell me of entire data sites becoming isolated over single points of failure with ramifications that could not be predicted.Why am I thinking of Three Mile Island? |
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derrickleggett
Pointy Haired Yak DBA
4184 Posts |
Posted - 2005-03-21 : 14:54:15
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| It is from a comprehensive DR perspective. It's not from a geographically isolated portion of that comprehensive plan though. The core data center should have multiple circuits going to multiple providers and distribution centers. This isn't just power. It's communication lines, data links, power, utilities, etc. Once you go beyond that, you would hope they have a fairly comprehensive isolated DR plan as well. This could include leased equipment, an actual data center off-site, etc. Ask them for as much information as you can.MeanOldDBAderrickleggett@hotmail.comWhen life gives you a lemon, fire the DBA. |
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Umm... Replication ?