RAID Data Recovery Planning And You

Redundancy, or the "R" of RAID has made many IT people assume that RAID data recovery is just not a necessary service. And why not? After all, over the past few decades, RAID storage platforms have been the choice of corporate environments, rightly seen to be the best the data storage industry has to offer. Mission-critical applications such as high-end database servers including SQL and Oracle and collaboration tools such as Exchange have made their homes on such servers, which provide high speed access to data with a safety factor that makes backing up almost seem unnecessary.

One of the facts even the most wizened information technology administrators don't even think about is that although RAID servers are possibly the most robust data storage solution available today (the form factor, which dates back to the early 1990s and late 1980s, has made small advances, but still remains overall the same solution), they are still built on old technology. The fact is, RAID platforms, whether RAID 5 or 50, still have the same heart at their core, the hard disk drive. Hard disk drives have mechanical parts, and mechanical parts fail. Even RAID servers built with newer Solid State Drives will inevitably fail, as these applications have circuits that wear, virtually guaranteeing their likelihood for inevitable RAID data recovery.

Are all RAID servers doomed to fail, then? Well, not necessarily, and no matter the case, preparation and planning virtually guarantees that the smart administrator will win the day. Use these tips as part of your war plan:

What Assets Are You Responsible For? - Having a complete knowledge of precisely what your duties as an administrator entail is key, knowing which systems and what applications you're in control of before an emergency is a definite win-win situation. Understanding your technologies now means less to question when an emergency takes place.

Getting The Details On Your Applications - Once you've made a list of what Information Technology solutions you're responsible for, it is your duty to build a knowledgebase that will be your go-to in the event of an emergency. To start, look at your list of systems, and prioritize the crucial ones, such as machines that use mission-critical products such as Exchange servers or Oracle databases. Set about gathering all crucial manuals, manufacturer support forum details (including that for RAID controller hardware and specialized components), and superior product forums. Better to find and collect all of this information now, as opposed to when things have gone south.

Have An External Service Ready - If you haven't had a problem that has required hard drive or RAID data recovery, pretend you do! Now... who are you going to call? Stumped? You shouldn't be. Knowing which are the best RAID repair shops in the industry is a piece of knowledge you need to be familiar with. Not only that, but is there a vendor that offers 24 hour service in case of hyper-critical crash? It's much easier to investigate now, than it will be when you're suffering from full RAID data recovery madness.

Believing that the redundancy capabilities of RAID will save you in all cases has been the downfall of many a great CTO. Over-planning, on the other hand, is typically not. Knowing this will virtually guarantee your RAID data recovery case is more a coping exercise than it is an all-out panic.

Ryan Davis Alexander is a professional data recovery engineer, and webmaster with http://www.raiddatarecovery.net. Discover several of hard drive recovery and system tips, as well as determine if you need professional raid data recovery today.