..:.:: disaster recovery

CM_SAFE™:Robust, Flexible Disaster Recovery for Your Configuration Files

Most Current Disaster Recovery Plans Have Gaps

Even among companies that have robust disaster recovery plans for their information assets, those plans often plans have a large gap. Software assets can be recovered from an off-site set of installation media. Data assets can be recovered from off-site data backups. But no current system allows you to restore configuration assets across your entire open systems enterprise.

The recovery hosts must typically be manually configured from the ground up. Manual reconfiguration is a grueling process that can take hours and require precision from your system administrators at a time in which their attention is likely to be divided. Time pressures and stress from the disaster situation are likely to cause mistakes. In a business environment in which downtime is loss, a better solution is required.

CM_SAFE Fills the Configuration Disaster Recovery Gap

CM_SAFE provides protection that your configuration assets need to be part of a complete disaster recovery plan that protects all of your computing assets. CM_SAFE functionality allows you to restore configuration to replacement hosts, support mirrored configuration at hot recovery sites, and provide disaster recovery for cold recovery sites.

Using CM_SAFE to Mirror Configuration to a Hot Recovery Site

Many organizations use hot-site mirroring to provide real-time disaster recovery with their primary work site. Hot-site mirroring maintains an exact copy of the production environment at another site. As changes are made to the primary site, regular synchronization replicates the changes to the hot site.

CM_SAFE can easily act as a configuration conduit between the primary site and the hot site. When changes are made to the hosts at the primary site, they are stored in the CM_SAFE configuration repository, located on a CM_SAFE server. The hosts at the hot site can then periodically pull the changes for their corresponding server's configuration files from the CM_SAFE server's configuration repository.

If this activity is scheduled for the same cycles used to synchronize the rest of the environment, each host's configuration will be as current as its data and software.

Using CM_SAFE to Restore Configuration at a Cold Recovery Site

A cold site has a similar set of hardware as its primary site, but is not mirrored for instant use in the event of a disaster. In most cases, the site must be either be reconstructed from the ground up, or substantially updated to reflect conditions at the primary site. CM_SAFE provides disaster recovery kits (DRKs™) that can be placed offsite with data backups and software installation media.

The DRK process pulls configuration information and a rebuild script from the CM_SAFE server's configuration repository and uses them to build a recovery image for each host. Recovery images are typically stored together in an ISO image, which a system administrator can burn to a CD for off-site storage.

When recovery occurs, systems administrators can access the recovery CD and restore configurations for any recovery host included in the DRK. Because the recovery images are typically quite small of each host, a single CD can hold recovery images for a substantial number of hosts.

Using CM_SAFE to Configure Replacement Servers

When a single host is lost, regardless of the cause, CM_SAFE can provide you with the ability to quickly and easily replicate configuration on a replacement host. In its normal operation, CM_SAFE captures configuration files specified for each host. If a host has to be replaced, system administrators can simply install the CM_SAFE agent on the replacement host, then retrieve the most recent configuration for its predecessor.

If the disaster incapacitated more than one host, you can repeat the same process to restore each replacement host's predecessor's configuration.

Summary

No matter what your configuration disaster recovery requirements are, one of these three solutions is likely to achieve them for you. In addition, CM_SAFE also offers rock-solid configuration file management and version control functionality, which reduces the overhead required for system maintenance, reduces the risk of configuration-related outages, and drastically reduces the length of any outages that do occur.

Copyright © 2002, GMx Solutions, LLC. All rights reserved.
Patents pending. CM_SAFE™, Virtual Appliances™, VAP™, VAPServer™ and Orchestrate Your Enterprise™ are trademarks of GMx Solutions, LLC. Other company, product and services names may be trademarks or service marks of others. Some information in this document addresses anticipated future capabilities.

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