You keep jumper cables in the trunk. You change the batteries in your flashlights and smoke detectors on a regular basis. You keep a list of emergency phone numbers beside the phone. So when was the last time you performed a disaster recovery on your office server? What did you say? What do you mean you have never performed a disaster recovery?

“But I back up the server every night. Isn’t that enough?”

No! What good is it to back up all your important data every night if you can’t recover it when you really need it?

Most small businesses fall within two different solutions. The first has a server that is really nothing more than a regular desktop computer with a big hard drive that has shared folders and maybe an accounting program on it that everyone in the office can access.

The second has an actual server with active directory, shared folders, maybe Microsoft exchange server and an SQL server installed on it. These could all be on the same server if the business is small, or they could be on two or three servers in a large environment.

If you have a small doctor’s office, bakery or coffee shop, then you probably fall into the first category. In this case, testing your backups is rather routine. All you have to do is restore random files from your backup to a new folder and see if they are readable.

If you have a lawyer’s office, a nonprofit, or medium-sized office with ten to 25 computers, then you probably fall into the second category. In that case, testing disaster recovery is much more involved, as active directory, SQL server and exchange have to be recovered in their entirety.

If your server is set up in a RAID configuration, then at a minimum, you will need three hard drives identical to the ones currently in your server to test your backups. Ideally, you should have a second backup server that is similar, if not identical, to your main server. With a second server, you can take your backups and install them on this server, making sure all your users are still there, all the user’s rights are still correct, all your mail is still readable, and all your documents and databases are still accessible.  It’s a little more involved, to say the least.

“Well, how often should this disaster recovery be done at my office?” At least once a year, preferably twice, or whenever your backup routine changes. Backup tapes wear out or become corrupt, hard drives can become corrupt, your motherboard could die, or you might simply think you are backing up everything you need only to discover when you try to recover your data that you forgot to include your exchange server log files in the backup. Now you can’t recover exchange, and everyone’s e-mail is gone. Wouldn’t it be nice to know this in a test scenario, before you actually need it to be there?

There is really no way to be sure that all the time and money you have invested in your backup procedure is worthwhile, unless you test the recovery of that information. How would it affect your business if you came in tomorrow and your server wouldn’t start? All your files are inaccessible, nobody has e-mail, your calendar, all your contacts…everything is gone. Maybe the hard drive in the server died. Do you have a spare hard drive to replace it? If you don’t, you have to order a new one, wait for it to arrive, then have your IT person reinstall Windows, all your applications, and then recover everything from your backup.

Best case scenario? Your entire network is down at least half a day. Worst case scenario? You wait a day or two for the new hard drive, install Windows and try to recover your backup. But wait…something’s wrong…active directory won’t recover correctly. This means you have to rebuild active directory from scratch.

All your usernames, all their privileges, your shared folders and all their permissions…this could take a week to get back to where you were. Want to be really scared? What if your backup tape is corrupt? You might be able to recover some data off, or it could just as easily all be gone.

The chances of a total loss are small, but the point is if you discover this during your disaster recovery test, it’s an inconvenience—if you discover it after your server actually dies, your business could be in severe trouble.

Sure, it costs a little more to have a second server or a couple spare hard drives on hand, but look at the cost of the alternative: How much would it cost to have everyone in the office waiting for someone to restore your network? An office with ten people making $18 an hour would cost you over $1,400 for one day’s salaries. What if it took three days? That doesn’t even take into account the cost of reproducing all those missing files if your backup tape is corrupt.

You can have spare hard drives on hand for a couple hundred dollars; brand new servers with 2GB of RAM start at $250. Even if you added a couple more hard drives and more memory to it, you would still be way under the cost of one day’s lost productivity. Basically, it’s more expensive to do nothing versus making sure you are protected in case of a crash.

A tested disaster recovery plan can change a server crash from a very expensive headache into a mere inconvenience.

		Mark Williams is the field services technician for PTD Technology, assisting commercial, nonprofit and residential clients. He holds certifications in A+, Network+, Security+, and is a Microsoft Certified Professional.