Maintenance and Monitoring - Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Administration - page 334

There's more...
It is best practice for very large databases (VLDB) to logically group and represent data in
ways that form distinct parcels or subsystems. The piecemeal restore methods are helpful
in procuring multiple data and filegroups partially that will essentially reduce the loss of one
system that will not affect the availability of another system.
Planning and designing of a Disaster
Recovery environment
As it stands, the disaster recovery (DR) is a recovery action, but in the real world it must
be a proactive action where preparing to recover from potential disasters is important. The
proactive actions must contain a well designed and tested restore plan for the data platform.
The backup and restore plan should consider the disaster recovery planning with regard to
particular environmental and business needs.
The ideal need for a disaster recovery plan will ensure that all the systems and data can be
quickly restored to regular operation if a disaster occurs. In this recipe, we will work on the
planning and design strategy of a disaster recovery environment for the SQL Server data
platform. The planning and design of a DR environment involves a strategy and process rather
than the physical steps to implement essentially a checklisted process.
Getting ready
The disaster recovery plan can be structured in many different ways that contain many types
of information. There are various plan types that include the following:
F Specified hardware acquisition on standby environment
F Communication plan—written instructions
F List of people and escalation to be contacted if a disaster occurs
F High-level and detailed instructions for contacting people involved in the response to
the disaster
F The authority and administration of the plan
F A checklist and checkpoint of required tasks for each recovery scenario
F All of these essential steps must be documented to dictate how long recovery will
take and the final database state the users can expect
How to do it...
We will go through various scenarios that will help the DBAs and System Administrators to
implement the planning and design steps of a DR environment.