SQL Server Database Disaster Recovery

  • Hello SQL Masters,

    Greetings!

    Any suggestion for Disaster Recovery Plan?

    Thank you!

    Tsinelas,

  • Absolutely.

    1) Identify your SLAs

    2) Identify what needs to be included in the DR plan

    3) Craft a plan to meet the above requirements.

    If you're not comfortable putting something so critical together yourself, I suggest you get a good SQL consultant in. Creating a DR plan for a company is a very complex job, takes a lot of time and experience to get right.

    Gail Shaw
    Microsoft Certified Master: SQL Server, MVP, M.Sc (Comp Sci)
    SQL In The Wild: Discussions on DB performance with occasional diversions into recoverability

    We walk in the dark places no others will enter
    We stand on the bridge and no one may pass
  • Yes, have one.

    But seriously:

    Start with backups. Identify the Recovery Point Objective (RPO). That's the amount of data that the business is willing to lose. They'll say zero, but that's an impossible number to support. Get them to agree to five minutes worth or fifteen minutes worth, minimum. That will dictate the amount and type of backups you'll need to set up. Then, work out how long it's going to take you to restore your databases, the Recovery Time Objective (RTO) and communicate this to the business. It's largely a matter of the size of your databases, the speed and type of disks you're working with, and the types of backups you have available based on your RPO.

    Communicate all this with the business and ensure that they understand that much of this is dictated by physical laws of the universe, not wishful thinking.

    Then, figure out what they want for availability and uptime. This will lead you towards certain technologies, geographic distribution, web based solutions, etc.

    In short, this a giant topic with tens of thousands of variables. There isn't a "Generic DR Plan" that we can provide for you and you can implement. It completely depends on the needs of your business combined with their willingness to spend money to meet those needs. You'll meet somewhere in the middle, not supporting all their needs necessarily, but spending a lot more money than they wanted to.

    "The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood"
    - Theodore Roosevelt

    Author of:
    SQL Server Execution Plans
    SQL Server Query Performance Tuning

  • Thanks a lot SQL Masters! 🙂

    I appreciate it much!

    With your suggestions, i do have now an idea for this DR Plan.:-)

    Thanks a lot Masters!

    Cheers,

    Tsinelas

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