In The Real World - Disaster!

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In The Real World - Disaster!

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Steve Jones - SSC Editor

Posted Tuesday, April 30, 2002 9:22 AM

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Ouch

,

no, this actually occurred two weeks ago on a Wed. I succsessfully moved everything over and ordered a new RAID controller the next day. We were configuring the production machine that Fri, when our board meeting ended and the CEO came and told us that the company would be folding. It had nothing to do with the technology, the salesman just couldn't sell enough stuff over the last two years. I and my former CTO are extremely proud of the software and systems we built. It was the best, most flexible and reliable software I've ever been a part of and I was sorry to see it go.
I have some notes over the last two weeks at my www.dkranch.net site, if you are interested. Also I am consulting with a couple former customers of IQD that want to continue to use the software and had an escrow agreement for it's use.

If I hadn't gotten things running that night, then I might have deservered to lose my job, but that wasn't the case.

Steve Jones
steve@dkranch.net

Follow me on Twitter: @way0utwest

Forum Etiquette: How to post data/code on a forum to get the best help

Post #32061

SL10

Posted Tuesday, April 30, 2002 1:28 PM

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I apologize if I came across rude, but that was my reflex after seeing your little add in sqlcentral newsletter.

Your experience really made me think again about backup procedures. I also discussed your article with my colleagues at work (IT dept). Some people think 2h 45m under those conditions is formidable recovery time, some disagree. I think that hardware failure plus not having enough time to prepare backup box plus not physically being there made it all very difficult. But I was surprised you didn’t have restore scripts ready (taking care of spids, logins/users, etc.)

Couple of questions:
1.) How many databases were recovered?
2.) What was used to move backups to tape?
3.) You said one box was co-located. Different domain I guess. I also gues you transferred users/logins through script?

Very useful article, thanks!

Post #32062

Steve Jones - SSC Editor

Posted Tuesday, April 30, 2002 2:17 PM

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Only a few users/logins and they were synched with sp_change_users_login (we use SQLAuth). They were added with sp_addlogin because our backup box was "appropriated" a couple months ago for another task. Had this been a more critical item for the company, we would have had it done quicker.

np, it was just a shock this am seeing the post. I understand your seeing the two events together. I'd actually written this about 12 hours before being told the company was failing.

The backups were not on tape. Actually they were, but only for the previous night. I ftp backups and logs every 15 minutes to our ftp site, so we recovered the most recent from there.
A total of 3 databases were recoved that night. I did msdb the next day.

Steve Jones
steve@dkranch.net

Follow me on Twitter: @way0utwest

Forum Etiquette: How to post data/code on a forum to get the best help

Post #32063

Itai Raz

Posted Thursday, June 03, 2004 4:24 PM

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A couple of things:

1) The easiest way to kill all spids is actually to go through the "detach database" form, which allows you to kill all active processes. You do not actually have to detach the database for it, it's just a convenience given to you with courtesy of MS (and for some reason is only found in the "Detach DB" winform).

2) There has to be a better way to have your database server redundant. Starting with a clustered active-passive two server configuration, through a raid 10 disk array, with spare parts sitting around just for those few remaining single points of failure (e.g. raid controller). Wouldn't you agree?

Post #119172

viral.shah

Posted Tuesday, April 22, 2008 8:16 AM

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About 80% businesses failed after a major data disaster
happened to them. This we have already seen recently
in the UK when major floods caused a major breakdown for
various IT and non-IT companies to lost their data and they
were out of business.

Using backup software which is embedded in OS is a good idea when you are sure
about your hardware. Major data lost occur due to hard disk failure or controller
failure. In this case, you wont be able to retrive from your hard disk and basically
you will lose all your data unless you have done offsite backup.

To avoid this, any business, either SMB or enterprise, must
have disaster recovery plan. D2D Bare Metal Recovery is one
technology which is available in the market but not all
people know about this. Check this out at,

www.unitrends.co.uk

They are the originator for Bare Metal term. Using this
technology one can restore OS and Data very quickly.

Post #488654

SQLBill

Posted Thursday, December 13, 2012 2:54 PM

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At one job, I had a USB device with scripts and directions on it. I stored it in a known location so any admin would be able to get to it if needed. It had directions for properly shutting down SQL Server and restarting it. Commands for restoring databases. Diagnostic commands. There was a main file that listed what every other file was and what they were used for.

That way if I was away, I could walk another person through what needed done in almost any situation. 'Run this script - okay, what's the result? Now run this one'.

I needed it since the site I worked at was a classified site and we couldn't remote in. As the only SQL Server DBA, I needed to be able to have another Admin (security/system/application) 'step in' for me when I was away. I could help them over the phone when I couldn't get into work.

Unfortunately, I created the USB drive at work and was not allowed to take it with me. At my new job, we have so many DBAs we are covered 24/7.

-SQLBill

Post #1396412

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