Archive for DR/BCP
Author: Dave Lewis
March 26, 2008 at 6:59 am · Filed under Administravia, DR/BCP
Well, yesterday was certainly an adventure. Our main database cluster for Liquidmatrix went down hard.
From our support crew:
We’re currently experiencing problems with the cluster affecting web, database and mail services. The file server is being worked on, we sincerely apologize for any inconvenience
Since then it has been resolved. Back up after a 5 hour outage. Ugh.
So, there it is in a nutshell. Thanks for everyone who wrote in. Thank (insert deity) for good backups. We are still here and the support folks have us back up and running!
Author: Dave Lewis
February 15, 2008 at 8:27 am · Filed under DR/BCP, Email, Legal Aspects, Politics
The fun and games that is the missing White House email story is ramping up. A federal judge has now issued an order for the WH to prepare a discovery.
Where’s my popcorn? This is getting good.
From Computer World:
District Court Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly this week issued an order enabling the Washington-based Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics watchdog group to perform limited questioning of White House officials. The group last May had filed suit against the White House Office of Administration seeking access to White House e-mail under the federal Freedom of Information Act.
The nonprofit group had been seeking White House e-mail documents related to various controversial issues, including the release of the identity of a former CIA operative, the reasons for launching the war in Iraq and actions by the U.S. Department of Justice. The White House has contended that the e-mail requested by the group has been lost.
Kollar-Kotelly ordered the discovery to determine whether the Office of Administration is subject to the Freedom of Information Act. The office contends it is not subject to FOI requests.
Not subject to…? OK, if they cover their eyes and say “lalalala, I can’t see you” that will not make this problem go away.
Article Link
Tags: White House Email, Missing White House Emails, Colleen Kollar-Kotelly
Author: Dave Lewis
February 13, 2008 at 7:24 am · Filed under DR/BCP, Mobile
Not being a Blackberry user (strictly by happenstance, I’d love to have one) I missed the outage that occurred on Monday. This is not the first time there has been a large scale Blackberry outage. Almost a year ago the RIM network suffered a significant outage leaving a large swath of customers in the dark. Regarding Monday’s outage,
From Tech World:
“RIM is continuing to investigate the exact cause” of the outage, the company said in a statement Tuesday. Late Monday it apologised for any inconvenience caused by the incident, which left customers throughout North America without current email for about three hours starting around 3:30 pm Eastern Time.
It was the second major outage in less than a year for the popular mobile data service, on which about 12 million subscribers depended at the beginning of last December. The previous problem, which occurred last April, was caused by a minor software upgrade that went awry, followed by a failed switchover to a backup system, according to RIM. The company said soon afterwards that it had identified “certain aspects of its testing, monitoring and recovery processes that will be enhanced” as a result of the failure.
I hope that the RIM crew are having a better day today.
Article Link
Tags: RIM, Blackberry Outage, Blackberry Network Collapse
Author: Dave Lewis
February 1, 2008 at 4:38 pm · Filed under DR/BCP, Telecom
OK, so once is an accident. Twice a coincidence but, a third time in as many days? I find this one a little too convenient.
From the Globe and Mail:
Bandwidth providers in India said they were working to restore service to about 80 per cent of its usual speed Friday.
Many companies said their Internet access already had gotten better.
“We’ve been getting and sending e-mails normally. Compared to yesterday connectivity is certainly improved,” said Praveen Mathur of Streit India Advisory Services Pvt. Ltd., an New Delhi-based investment consulting firm with clients in the United States and Canada.
Rajesh Chharia, president of India’s Internet Service Provider’s Association, said access improved as service providers rerouted traffic across the Pacific.
In Egypt, Internet access remained sporadic or nonexistent Friday, the first day of the official Muslim weekend in the Middle East when all government offices and most businesses are closed. Egyptian Minister of Communications and Information Technology Tarek Kamil said service would be up to about 80 per cent of its usual capacity within 48 hours.
Not a conspiracy theory so, you can dispel that one. I just find it a remarkable coincidence that three undersea cables got nailed in a week.
I’m just saying.
Article Link
Tags: Undersea Cable, Third Undersea Cable, No Internet Access, Internet Outage
Author: Dave Lewis
January 25, 2008 at 11:47 am · Filed under DR/BCP, Email
You wake up. Roll out of bed and wander to the coffee machine. Bleary eyed you sit down to check your Charter Communications email only to find that your account is gone.
Ouch.
From the AP:
Charter Communications officials believe a software error during routine maintenance caused the company to delete the contents of 14,000 customer e-mail accounts.
There is no way to retrieve the messages, photos and other attachments that were erased from inboxes and archive folders across the country on Monday, said Anita Lamont, a spokeswoman for the suburban St. Louis-based company.
“We really are sincerely sorry for having had this happen and do apologize to all those folks who were affected by the error,” Lamont said Thursday when the company announced the gaff.
Charter, one of the nation’s largest cable TV operators, also provides telephone and high-speed Internet service. It has applied a $50 credit to the bill of each customer whose account was affected by the mistake, Lamont said.
A $50 credit? So, hold on a tick. They have no backups?
Article Link
Tags: Charter Communications, Charter Cable Email Deleted, Charter Email Deleted
Author: Dave Lewis
January 16, 2008 at 8:00 am · Filed under DR/BCP, Data Security, Education
After checking the emails this morning I noticed quite a few people trying to find information on how to recover their deleted blog entries.
Interesting.
Well, one of the ways to accomplish this is to make sure you maintain a solid backup schedule for your blog database. That of course is assuming that you are in fact the one running it. Another method, simplistic as it might seem, is to maintain a copy of each entry that you post. Copy and paste a copy into a document that you store offline or similar fashion. The key being that you would want to be able to restore it in the event that your shiny new MacBook Air (for example) took a tumble down the stairs.
There are tools available that will help smooth the process of making backups. A handy plugin for Wordpress written by Scott Merrill and now maintained here (link: http://www.ilfilosofo.com/blog/wp-db-backup/). Also there are step by step instructions for going through the restore process as found here. Bearing in mind I’m only pointing to Wordpress related articles. You can find the information pertaining to your own blog database restore with a quick Google search.
Of course all of this is based on the idea of proper planning and having good recovery procedures. Think of it as I do my morning coffee. You need it to survive. Sadly, there is little to be done in the case of “Oops I deleted everything and I have no backups”. Well, in that case you’re pretty much screwed.
Tags: Wordpress Database, Recover Blog Entries, Blog Backups
Author: Dave Lewis
December 20, 2007 at 8:02 am · Filed under Administravia, DR/BCP
Morning folks. Sorry for being a low poster yesterday. As you might infer from the graphic above I’m under the weather. Last week while I was in the studio with the band I play for, I picked up this bug. I should have been more careful when I noticed that our guitar player was sniffling away. Of course being a cordial fellow I shook hands with the guys when I arrived. One thing that I would normally keep in the car is a travel sized hand sanitizer. It’s just a good habit to get into especially during this time of year. Of course mine ran out and “I’ll get some later” kept replaying in my lobe. Get some and carry it with you. If you haven’t already, make sure you are getting your vitamin C. It’s a preventative measure but, be sure to consult a physician for medical advice as I am most assuredly not one. I hope to get some postings up today once the meds begin coursing though my blood stream.
Tags: Hand Sanitizer, Illness Prevention, Head Cold
Author: Dave Lewis
November 26, 2007 at 1:04 pm · Filed under DR/BCP
So, are you ready to fend off a Jellyfish attack? While this may seem like a silly question there is truth in it. I was reading the news this morning about an organic fish farm off the coast of Ireland that was besieged by marauding Jellyfish not once but twice.
This got me to thinking.
What is the state of your disaster recovery plan? Have you been testing and perfecting your plan or have you succumbed to the tick box mentality to fend off the hoards of auditors that pace to and fro at the edge of the moat?
From Spiegel Online:
The first attack was like a Biblical plague: Billions of purplish pelagia noctiluca, or mauve stingers, drifted over cages of salmon in Glenarm Bay and stung to death about 120,000 fish. Estimated damage to the organic farm — which sells salmon to high-end caterers in Britain — was over £1 million ($2 million, €1.4 million). The jellyfish wiped out the company’s mature harvest a month before Christmas.
The UK’s chief fisheries officer at the Department of Agriculture, Mark McCoughan, told the Belfast Telegraph last Thursday that Northern Salmon would now have “no cash flow” until autumn 2008, when young fish at another site, Red Bay, were big enough for the market. By Saturday, though, the Red Bay stock had been killed off by jellyfish too.
So, this unfortunate disaster has wiped out their cash flow. A strong case for having your DR plan in order wouldn’t you say?
Shit Life happens while you’re making plans.
Article Link
Tags: Jellyfish Attack, Disaster Recovery, Disaster Planning
Author: Dave Lewis
November 1, 2007 at 8:04 pm · Filed under DR/BCP
There are some truths in this world. Death, taxes and that hard drive of yours will ultimately fail. Eric Gwinn has an interesting article about what the hell do we do when your hard drive dies?
From the Chicago Tribune:
So, to cheat Death, start a backup plan now to create a separate archive of the precious things you store on your computer.
Why? Because it’s not just a bunch of files you’re backing up, it’s the stuff of your life: your irreplaceable pictures of the kids, the music that makes you howl and dance. Financial records. Projects. Maybe even work-related files that help you earn a paycheck. You don’t want Digital Death coming anywhere near, whispering “Trick or treat!”
Because you’re so attached to the stuff on your computer, there’s a big market of products and software to help you save it. Here, we’re going for simplicity: The easier the chore, the more likely you will do it regularly.
Just imagine how badly it would suck if your hard drive died tomorrow with no backups.
I know I would cry like a hollywood princess on her way to prison.
Article Link
Tags: Personal Data Backup, Personal Disaster Recovery, Data Loss
Author: Dave Lewis
September 17, 2007 at 6:04 pm · Filed under DR/BCP
Um, OK, someone want to let me in on it? No sooner had I written about Canada Post’s day long site outage I received this email.
Dear WineSpectator.com visitor,
As you may know by now, our website is currently unavailable, due to technical difficulties.
We anticipate the site to be functional by week’s end.
We apologize for the inconvenience, and will e-mail you again when the site is up.
Sincerely,
WineSpectator.com
I added the emphasis. Not exactly a major burning issue for the grape juice lovers among us but, odd timing.
As a result of my previous post I decided to check what Wine Spectator is running.
—————————–
Date: Mon, 17 Sep 2007 22:54:18 GMT
Server: Apache/1.3.34 (Win32)
Last-Modified: Mon, 17 Sep 2007 17:03:25 GMT
Etag: “0-84c-46eeb35d”
Accept-Ranges: bytes
Content-Length: 2124
Content-Type: text/html
200 OK
—————————–
Apache on Win32?
Er, OK.
Article Link
UPDATE: Phew, the Wine Spectator site is back online. Just received this email from them.
We are happy to report that the interruption of service at www.winespectator.com was corrected yesterday.
Once again, our apologies for the inconvenience. We appreciate your understanding.
Very truly yours,
WineSpectator.com
www.winespectator.com
Hmmm, OK, so where did I put that Cab Sauv.?
Tags: Wine Spectator Website Down, Disaster Recovery, Website Outage
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