Disaster Recovery Plan

Disaster Recovery Plan

Primary FOCUS of the Plan

The primary focus of this document is to provide a plan to respond to a disaster that destroys or severely cripples the school system's central computer. The intent is to restore operations as quickly as possible with the latest and most up-to-date data available.

Plan Overview

Salvage Operations at Disaster Site

Early efforts are targeted at protecting and preserving the computer equipment. In particular, any magnetic storage media (hard drives, magnetic tapes, diskettes) are identified and either protected from the elements or removed to a clean, dry environment away from the disaster site.

Designate Recovery Site

At the same time, a survey of the disaster scene is done by appropriate personnel to estimate the amount of time required to put the facility (in this case, the building and utilities) back into working order. A decision is then made whether to use the alternate site, a location some distance away from the scene of the disaster where computing and networking capabilities can be temporarily restored until the primary site is ready. Work begins almost immediately at repairing or rebuilding the primary site. This may take months, the details of which are beyond the scope of this document.

Purchase New Equipment

The recovery process relies heavily upon vendors to quickly provide replacements for the resources that cannot be salvaged. The district will rely upon emergency procurement procedures documented in this plan and approved by the purchasing office to quickly place orders for equipment, supplies, software, and any other needs.

Recover at Partner Site:

A recovery kit will be retrieved from the safe location and taken to the alternate partner site.

Restore Data from Backups

Data recovery relies entirely upon the use of backups stored in locations off-site from the Administrative Services Building. Backups can take the form of magnetic tape, CDROMs, disk drives, and other storage media. Early data recovery efforts focus on restoring the operating system(s) for system. Next, first line recovery of application and user data from the backup tapes is done.

Preventive Measures

The AS/400 is protected by passwords. All users should be required to change their passwords on a regular basis. Invalid attempts to sign into the system are logged and the user profile is disabled after 3 invalid attempts.

Backups

New hardware can be purchased. New buildings can be built. New employees can be hired. But the data that was stored on the old equipment cannot be bought at any price. It must be restored from a copy that was not affected by the disaster.

The AS/400 is backed up on a regular basis. A full system save is performed once a month and the daily backups contain all of the user data and programs. Full system saves are taken offsite. A daily save is taken off site every other day.

Recovery Facility

If a central facility is destroyed in a disaster, repair or rebuilding of that facility may take an extended period of time. In the interim it will be necessary to restore computer and network services at an alternate site.

In the event of a disaster, the school system would contact Cook Consulting. Cook Consulting provides system and technical support for our AS/400. Cook Consulting will determine the best recovery site at another school district. This decision will be based on the size of the system, the compatibility of the operating system, the compatibility of the tape drives and the location. These factors may change over time, so the decision for a recovery site will be made at that time. Cook Consulting maintains a current list of equipment and software for 89 school districts in the state. We would in turn be willing to become a recovery site should another district be in need.

Since the assisting partner has to continue its day-to-day operations on its systems, the agreements are limited to providing access for a few key, critical applications that the district must run to stay afloat while its facilities are restored.

Replacement Equipment

This plan contains a complete inventory of the components of the main computer system and the software that must be restored after a disaster. The inevitable changes that occur in the systems over time require that the plan be periodically updated to reflect the most current configuration. Where possible, agreements have been made with vendors to supply replacements on an emergency basis. To avoid problems and delays in the recovery, every attempt should be made to replicate the current system configuration. However, there will likely be cases where components are not available or the delivery timeframe is unacceptably long. The Recovery Management Team will have the expertise and resources to work through these problems as they are recognized. Although some changes may be required to the procedures documented in the plan, using different models of equipment or equipment from a different vendor may be suitable to expediting the recovery process.

See Appendix A for a list of hardware and software.

Disaster Recovery Kit

The following items will be placed in a box and kept at a safe remote location.

Full system backup
Daily backups
Supplies (PR checks, AP checks, Purchase orders)
Blank tapes for the AS400
AS400 Operator Quick Reference
Copy of this disaster recovery plan
A copy of program documentation (Sunpac, HRMS, etc.)
Office supplies

Disaster Recovery Plan
Disaster Notification List

The disaster notification list for is shown below. These people are to be notified as soon as possible when disaster threatens or occurs.

Primary Notification List
Person	Title	Home Phone	Pager	Cellular

Disaster Recovery Plan
Activating the Disaster Recovery Plan

Appointment of Recovery Manager

The first order of business is to appoint the Recovery Manager. The person most appropriate for the position is the Superintendent. If this person is unavailable, Finance Officer should make the appointment.

Determine Personnel Status

One of the Recovery Manager's important early duties is to determine the status of personnel working at the time of the disaster. Safety personnel on site after the disaster will affect any rescues or first aid necessary to people caught in the disaster. However, the Recovery Manager should produce a list of the able-bodied people who will be available to aid in the recovery process.

Equipment/Media Protection and Salvage

A primary goal of the recovery process is to restore all computer operations without the loss of any data. It is important that the Recovery Manager appoint the Technical Coordinator quickly so that he can immediately set about the task of protecting and salvaging any magnetic media on which data may be stored. This includes any magnetic tapes, optical disks, CD-ROMs, and disk drives.

Establish the Recovery Control Center

The Recovery Control Center is the location from which the disaster recovery process is coordinated. The Recovery Manager should designate where the Recovery Control Center is to be established.

Activating the Disaster Recovery Plan

The Recovery Manager sets the plan into motion. Early steps to take are as follows:

The Recovery Manager should locate and obtain the Disaster Recovery Kit
Determine if an alternate site for computer operations is required.
Make arrangements to use the site. Contact Cook Consulting for assistance.
Take contents of the Disaster Recovery Kit to alternate site and begin the process of setting up operations.
Appendix A

List of Computer Hardware and Software for the AS/400

AS/400 Hardware: