Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!brutus.cs.uiuc.edu!wuarchive!wugate!uunet!psgdc!rg
From: rg@psgdc (Dick Gill)
Newsgroups: comp.misc
Subject: Re: Backup motivation (Was: Need HELP recovering files from tar damage)
Keywords: Backup
Message-ID: <232@psgdc>
Date: 21 Jul 89 22:10:58 GMT
References: <4385@merlin.usc.edu> <18567@mimsy.UUCP> <11668@orstcs.CS.ORST.EDU> <970@mplvax.EDU> <230@psgdc> <200@iclswe.UUCP>
Reply-To: rg@psgdc.UUCP (Dick Gill)
Organization: Professional Solutions Group, Vienna VA
Lines: 64

In article <200@iclswe.UUCP> lars@iclswe.UUCP (Lars Tunkrans) writes:
>In a pervious article Dick Gill wrote:
>
>>When we have clients who REALLY need the data on a backup tape
>> ...
>
>...
>
>How do you guys make people do their bakups ?
>
Dare I say, the same way we make our children always obey and
our salesmen always tell the absolute truth !;-)  With great
difficulty.

I think that there are several things that can increase the
liklihood of a client making regular backups:

First, be sure that they understand that the humming little box
in the corner  is the only place that all of the business
records of the organization are up to date and in one place; if
that data disappears it is likely that the organization will
quite literally be unable to continue functioning. No way to
ship product, prepare invoices, collect bills, receive cash or
even send a distress sale notice to all customers.

The next step is to make the client organization, management and
workers, fully aware that PROTECTION OF THE DATA IS SOLELY THEIR
JOB. They must understand that while we can replace their
hardware and software, there is  often nothing we can do to
reconstruct lost data (except charge them for our time spent
attempting to do so - something neither of us like).

Once they understand how important backups are, we have to make
backups simple, accurate and highly reliable.  The simplicity 
issue can be dealt with by good front-end scripts and ways to
get the actual backup done at off times like overnight; larger
capacity tape drives are really helping to simplify backups. The
accuracy of backups deals with assuring that all of the critical
files are actually being backed up, including program files
which are unique to the installation.  The reliability of each
backup can be tested by reading a directory of the just-written
tape back in to a disc file to verify that the  tape is
readable; in some instances a (time consuming) verify  phase of
the backup might be needed.

After all of those things are done, your question still remains:
how do you make them do the backups?

I think the best bet is to get the client to think of backups
like seat belts in their car and just automatically do them as a
part of their business operation; not surprisingly, those who
have been burned by loss of data without a backup tend to be
the easiest to convince. Maybe it is a special DP right of
passage.


Dick




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Dick Gill     Professional Solutions Group   (703)761-1163   ..uunet!psgdc!rg