Purpose

• A database disaster recovery plan is a step-by-step procedure for restoring your data and database services after a catastrophic event damages or destroys your data, your database server equipment, or your facility. The plan identifies critical databases, key personnel and contingencies. Considerations taken into account in developing a database disaster recovery plan include acceptable data loss, recovery time, priority of the databases and budget.
  
  

Risk Analysis

• The first step in developing a database disaster recovery plan is to identify the probable risks and the potential impact of each risk. Any event, natural or man-made, that can damage or destroy your database or database services is a possible risk. Examples of risks include natural disasters, equipment failure, power outages, data corruption and intentional damage by employees or external criminals. Some disasters may prevent you from accessing the physical database server.
  
  

Priorities

• Determining your organization's priorities is key to structuring your database disaster recovery plan. The acceptable recovery time and recovery priority of a database are determined by how critical that database is to the functioning of the organization. Databases that are frequently updated with new or modified data may suffer data loss during the period it is offline. Identifying acceptable data loss, and how often a database is modified and by whom, helps you determine the required recovery time.
  
  

Data Restoration

• At the core of the database disaster recovery plan is creating and maintaining a redundant or backup copy of the data. Redundant storage, database replication, mirroring and standby systems allow rapid data recovery. Backup to portable media has a slower recovery time, but may be more affordable. Keeping an offsite copy of your database is critical to recovering from facility damage that destroys the onsite systems and backups.
  
  

Implementation

• A disaster recovery plan should be a written document thoroughly detailing the who, how, when and where of database disaster recovery. A regular schedule and methodology for creating and testing backup copies of the databases ensures data loss meets the required minimum. Regular review and testing of the disaster recovery plan is critical to ensuring the procedures are current, complete and clear to all staff members.