Backing up critical data
Jun 1, 2009 12:00 PM, By Brad Gilmer
Follow these steps to keep your facility on-air.
No matter how you decide to protect the automation database, invest the time to understand where the database resides and what protections are provided by your vendor. Finally, if you need to enable the backup database, switch over to the backup during a noncritical time to ensure that everything works properly, and be sure that the process you follow to change over is well documented.
Protecting critical apps
Lastly, consider how to protect your facility from the loss of a critical on-air application such as automation or ingest. If you dig into the automation system design, you may find that while all of the content is stored on RAID servers, the automation system software and automation database are all running on a single consumer disk drive. If that drive fails, you will be one busy maintenance guy.
Moving the database over to a stand-alone database server takes care of the database vulnerability, but what about the automation system itself? Of course, if you have the original CDs that the automation system came from, you can install a new drive and then reload the automation application. But all this takes time. A simple, low-cost solution is to buy a second drive just like the one in your system. During a maintenance period, install the drive in the automation computer, load the operating system and the automation software. Complete the configuration of the automation, and verify that everything is working properly. Shut down the system, and put the original drive back into the computer. Carefully label the backup drive, document what you did (including noting the version of the OS and automation software on the drive), and put it on the shelf. Now if the automation computer drive fails, all you need to do is install the backup drive, and you are back on the air.
Brad Gilmer is president of Gilmer & Associates, executive director of the Video Services Forum and executive director of the Advanced Media Workflow Association.
Send questions and comments to: brad.gilmer@penton.com
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