A Data Protection Strategy for Enterprise Networks

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Consider the following backup and fault-tolerance strategies when creating your data protection policies:

  • Back up an entire volume in case a disk fails. It is more efficient to restore the entire volume in one operation.

  • Always back up the directory services database on a domain controller to prevent the loss of user account and security information.

  • For your critical computers, you can implement a software mirror of two separate hardware-controlled RAID arrays. With this configuration, if either a disk or an entire array fails, operations can continue.

  • In the event that a computer running Windows 2000 Server fails, you should have a spare computer with Windows 2000 Server already installed to which you can move the data disks.

Considerations for Designing a Fault-Tolerant Storage System

Some points to consider when planning your storage strategy include the following:

  • In general, you only need to use fault-tolerant configurations for information that you must have readily available in case of hardware failure or unrecoverable disk errors should the primary data source go offline for any reason.

  • If you have applications on a single computer running Windows 2000 Server, you only need to run them on a fault-tolerant volume if you cannot tolerate their unavailability for the amount of time it takes you to restore the applications from a backup.

  • You need to back up the application volume any time you install a new application or change default settings for an application.

  • If space is a consideration, you can format your application volume with the NTFS file system and use NTFS compression for folders and files on the volume.