Recovery Planning and Backup Questions

[Buster452]

First off, let me say thank you for all the help you've given me. I've greatly appreciated it. This being a new startup company, funds have been pretty short. So I've turned into a hand-on manager again until we can afford some staff.

So, now I'm working on my Disaster Recover Plan and focusing on the PBX (Option 61c) and MerMail right now. They're my weakest areas right now and I want to create some good documentation. I could stumble through rebuilding the data network and Win2003 easily, but I figured I'd better write up a step-by-step guide for the the telecom equipment before I need it.

I've searched this forum and found some excellent information, but still have a few questions.

I've done the LD43 edd and bko. So here are a few question's I have.

Question 1
The EDD does a datadump of the active cdmu to floppy, then the bko copies the database to the floppy. What is the difference in content of what each process is writing to disk?

Question 2
The switch came with two diskettes in it. Both are labeled as "Database Archive" with the serial number and NTI# on them. One has "(CE/PE)" on it while the other has just (CE). What are these disks?

Question 3
During the daily routine, I understand the switch is supposed to go through a backup routine and then switch the active core. Does it backup to diskette? How do I verify that it is doing backups?

Question 4
If indeed backup to diskette occurs nightly, to replace those diskettes can I can just take some 1.44 2hd diskettes like I used for the EDD/BKO and place them in in each core? Should I do an EDD/BKO on each diskette from the active core and then put them into both cores?


My plan is to write backup and recovery instructions in my DRP so well that even one of the staff assistants could do a recovery of the switch. Not that I'd have one of them do it, but you never know what knowledge level you'll be dealing with during the recover from a disaster. You just can't assume anything.

TIA,
Buster

 

[johnpoole]

the edd both manual and midn backups up the active hard drive to the standby floppy.. i run procomm full time on the switch so i can redisplay the screen to see the midn and any errors so i can address those.. make sure you have all the maint lds in the drol

REQ: end
>ld 22
PT2000

REQ  prt
TYPE ovly

OVLY
  SID  722
  BKGD 044
  PBXH X
  TODR 01
[COLOR=red]  DROL 030 034 036 038 043 044 045 060 135 137[/color]
  MULTI_USER ON

if you need to add loads, make that change in ld 17. i do an edd each morning then ld 135 scpu ld 43 edd.. after i have change both disk.. i have 10 disk, a pair for each day of the week.. i monitor my switch for any err's that occur during the day. ld 117 inv generate midnight, then once a week i do a inv prt sets to compare the as built with actual. those need to match..

for mermail, i had a single tape for each day of the week, doing a partial with all mailboxes each night except friday. friday i did a full backup.. if your os is corrupt, a full backup will not restrore a partial will.. make sure you have the install disk and keycodes for the switch and the install tape and keycodes as well as the backups... once a month i prt a complete tnb and save that to an excel, it acts as a saftey net in case someone outs the wronge phone. it never hurts to go through ld's 20 21 and 22 and print everything as well as 23 86 87 95 and 90.. then hope you never need those files.. i have been on a recovery where the only way to rebuild the database was to retype it.. that is a pain and a very long week... search the forum for scripts that we have posted and consider if the amount of time they save is worth the time it takes to learn to use them.. in my case i can't work without them. i recently changed the ncos of 2700 sets in less the 4 hours while i was not in the switchroom.. scripts save a lot of time on large changes.. if you don't have a full time switchman, you might look at otm, i don't like it and will not use it.. but in the right place it helps... be carefull, it breaks things as quickly as it fixes them


john poole
bellsouth business
columbia,sc

 

[Buster452]

With overlay 043 loaded for the daily routine, doesn't it do a dump to diskette? Is it just a dump to harddisk?

 

[joed1228]

So the EDD and BKO back up different files? For example if my switch went down and all I had was the floppies that I do my EDD in 43 onto, I would still be missing info?

 

[Reusser]

and edd wil back up to hard drive and floppy

BKO backs up just to floppy - data the same

 

[Buster452]

During the daily routine, does it backup to both diskettes for both cores, or just the active core?

From reading the extremely dry Nortel manuals, it seems like it would just backup the active core, then switch to the other core.

Buster

 

[Buster452]

Oh, and any idea what those diskettes that were in my drivers were?

"Question 2
The switch came with two diskettes in it. Both are labeled as "Database Archive" with the serial number and NTI# on them. One has "(CE/PE)" on it while the other has just (CE). What are these disks?

 

[Reusser]

EDD will backup to both hard drives (assuming they are in Redundancy mode) and to only the Active Floppy.

BKO will only back up to the active floppy

The diskettes in your drives are your backups - doesn't matter what is on the lable.

LD 43
.DAT <-- will show you when last backup to active CP floppy was.

 

[johnpoole]

rdun keeps both hd's on the same data. edd backsup from the hd to the floppy, both hd's are in sync without a back up.. changes are added to the active hd with an edd, that auto syncs to the standby.. always important to check for rdun... i've seen switches out of rdun for months without a tech(?) even knowing it

john poole
bellsouth business
columbia,sc

 

[Buster452]

Cool...
"dat
DATABASE ISSUE DATE(d/m/y)/TIME SIZE(recs) SEQNO
Main 2515ß 18/01/2006 at 00:01:44 45 1393
Secondary 2515ß 17/01/2006 at 09:23:50 45 1392
Backup database not accessible.
Current backup is on floppy diskette on CMDU 1

.
EDD000


.
CIOD157 INFO: CMDU 1 is ACTIVE, RDUN is ENABLED"


So then, how do I know if RDUN was successful? I dug around in LD117 but couldn't get any report on errors out of it. It just kept saying "not in edt" when I try to PRT EDT.