SIMS Disaster Recovery Plan

[maxrebo]

Had a disk fail in our SIMS server the other day (Fixed now) and got me thinking what if the SIMS server (God forbid!) went offline (Hardware\Software Fail) for a day(s) what plan the school has for doing registers whilst we fix it.

So I asked the Attendance officer what procedure they have..and they have none!.

 

Has anyone got a good procedure for this?, I`m thinking we could schedule a download of the registers every Friday to another server\laptop so we can print out the registers in the event of this.

 

I'm not sure if this can be done? any advice would be grateful

 

Thanks

[bossman]

@maxrebo

 

Paper registers and the attendance officer would then have to input the data, I suppose if you had Pars or some other third party software you could take the registers offline then when the Sims server came back up it would just sync, job done.

 

I don't know if these third party apps can do this but they probably should as this would be a big selling point.

[GREED]

'These' third party apps can do exactly this, with no need for printing registers or any real prep - just have logged into the app relatively recently (once a week?). You get a lot more than registers too...

[Banjo]

Attix5 works very well. We install this on our school servers and point it to our own hosting. Attix5 | capita-sims.co.uk

[zag]

Why note virtualize and just restore the image if a disk goes onto another host?

 

Thats pretty much our disaster recovery plan, although we do backup the SQL db as well separately just in case.

[maxrebo]

@maxrebo

 

Paper registers and the attendance officer would then have to input the data, I suppose if you had Pars or some other third party software you could take the registers offline then when the Sims server came back up it would just sync, job done.

 

I don't know if these third party apps can do this but they probably should as this would be a big selling point.

 

Yeah we have PARS, can you do this in it? (Just asking before I look myself)

 

Thanks

[jinnantonnixx]

Why note virtualize and just restore the image if a disk goes onto another host?

 

Thats pretty much our disaster recovery plan, although we do backup the SQL db as well separately just in case.

 

I'd be a bit more cautious about this. A rogered virtual server is still rogered, and moving the image to another host won't help - it's still rogered, albeit on a different host. I'd keep a separate image of another warm/cold standby server ready to take the database restore.

 

I use log shipping to keep a standby server up-to-date.

Edited February 26, 2015 by jinnantonnixx

[kennysarmy]

I'd be a bit more cautious about this. A rogered virtual server is still rogered, and moving the image to another host won't help - it's still rogered, albeit on a different host. I'd keep a separate image of another warm/cold standby server ready to take the database restore.

 

I use log shipping to keep a standby server up-to-date.

 

?

 

so you are saying the rogered server was rogered when the virtual backup took place? would you then not have previous weeks unrogered virtual back to restore?

[jinnantonnixx]

?

 

so you are saying the rogered server was rogered when the virtual backup took place? would you then not have previous weeks unrogered virtual back to restore?

 

Maybe. But I think it's safer to have a separate server waiting in the wings. It also gives you a chance to test your DR policy to make sure that your SQL backups are viable, without disturbing anybody.

 

I know it's a cliché, but unless you prove your backups, you only have 'alleged backups'!

Edited February 26, 2015 by jinnantonnixx

[vikpaw]

'These' third party apps can do exactly this, with no need for printing registers or any real prep - just have logged into the app relatively recently (once a week?). You get a lot more than registers too...

Not all have offline that works that easily! Some require a daily / 8 hourly login.

@maxrebo - in this scenario - attendance isn't your biggest issue. your firedrill policy should cover this. You should have relatively recent blank class lists available for registers and in terms of firedrill this is just something to make management happy, not because it's the right thing to do in a fire.

 

My concern would be access to emergency contact info for students, so again third parties could help, if they cache this info, we used Schoolcomms for this, Groupcall can do similar, so you have mobiles and email available.

 

Depending on the level of failure - you should have a backup that you can use. I have a test server this can be restored to. It gets relatively regular testing whenever a new update comes out. Your backups might be available offsite, but you could be screwed if the tape drive is hard connected to a failing server.

 

We have failover blades, and other fault tolerance, but only 1 chassis. Recently we had the whole management module fail, so all blades were inaccessible, in this situation, the option would have been to whack a backup on to a dummy sql server on laptop or PC and then access info from there. For our current MIS this is easier than for SIMS. SIMS must have the front-end application runnable to easily get at the info, and so you'd need a dummy sims server install somewhere. I'd recommend a VM on a laptop.

 

Other factors to consider are what other work is done on your MIS. e.g. cover - how do you get teachers in front of kids. You might need a print-out of all timetables for all years. Our timetabler used to have one on his wall, which is useful for other purposes like planning extra activities and whole school events.

 

Is finance managed on your SIMS server? - salary! , fees, etc. How quick can you get a new server in place? What is your maintenance agreement?

 

Are there other systems that use your MIS - ID systems, access control - dinner money? Maybe a VLE / homework system.?

 

Loss of MIS is bad.

[GREED]

Not all have offline that works that easily! Some require a daily / 8 hourly login.

 

My concern would be access to emergency contact info for students, so again third parties could help, if they cache this info, we used Schoolcomms for this, Groupcall can do similar, so you have mobiles and email available.

 

Clearly not all, I was really only concerned with one application but for fairness...