For organizations that depend on databases as part of their business process, the DRP team should cover database recovery planning in the disaster recovery strategy. There are various methods that can be used to ensure protection of the database such as: electronic vaulting, remote journaling, and remote mirroring. Each technique has its own benefits and drawbacks, And the DRP team should carefully review the organization’s computing requirements and available resources in order to select the option best suited to the organization.

Electronic vaulting is the process of backing up the data in a database and sending it to a remote site through bulk transfers. The remote site can be a designated alternative recovery site, such as a warm site, or an external location used to preserve backup data. When data is stored off-site a time delay should be factored into the moment a disaster is declared and the time backup site is ready to be used.

Remote journaling involves backing up the data in a database and transporting it to a remote site more frequently, usually once every hour. This also necessitates the transfer of copies of transaction logs that record all transactions since the previous bulk transfer. Remote journaling and electronic vaulting are similar processes in that transaction logs transferred to the remote site are not allocated to a live database server but are maintained in a backup device. When a disaster ensues technicians will access the appropriate transaction logs and apply them to the production database.

Remote mirroring is the most sophisticated and most costly database backup solution. With the remote mirroring process, a live database server is maintained at the remote site. The remote server retrieves copies of database alterations as they’re applied to the production server at the main location allowing the remote or mirrored server to take over at any time. Remote mirroring is a popular option of organizations, it demands high infrastructure and manpower costs to support the mirrored server.

Start learning with Cybrary

Create a free account

Related Posts

All Blogs