Tolerance For Downtime

We get quite a few calls from distraught users with down systems. Sometimes these users have no plan for the occasion. We try to help resolve these situations as much as possible, but unfortunately sometimes not much is possible. Without a backup contingency plan, the user can be left with only a vague idea of how the system was configured. Since it can take weeks to get a complicated system tuned to perfection, the user may be faced with spending those weeks of tweaking again.

This begs the question: What is your tolerance for downtime?

1 hour: You should have a well-tested warm backup and a process for cutting over.
4 hours: You should have backup hardware and do a regular configuration backup.
1 day: You'll need good documentation on how your system is set up.
1 week: You should have lot's of free time and a psychic systems engineer.
2 weeks: No forethought required.

There are a few things you can do:

• Backing up your BEPS configuration is fairly straightforward. It takes just a few minutes, but could save you days.
• Microsoft makes a Printer Migration tool that will help backup and restore Windows printers to another system, or the same system if it has to be rebuilt.
• We also can provide backup hardware.

The rest is just about measuring your tolerance for downtime and planning accordingly.

Ron Van Aken, COO (Chief Geek), Barr Systems, LLC
http://www.barrcentral.com/