Purpose
To ensure against catastrophic data loss, the college provides disaster recovery measures for the CLAS IT and CLAS Dean’s Office servers. Other college units who manage their own computer servers are encouraged to implement similar protective measures.
Scope
Our disaster recovery strategy is for site recovery following a catastrophic hardware or software failure. This strategy does not provide fault tolerance nor for recovery from user error.
Policy
Data Backup
All system, departmental, and user data is to be archived (level 0) at least once every fourteen (14) days. An “incremental” archive (level 1) is to be performed once per day. The level 0 archives are stored off site at a secure location. One level 0 archive per month will be kept for at least six months, in the event that system rollback is required.
Units with legal data retention or increased backup requirements will need to provide alternative backup strategies. CLAS IT will work with individual units to provide an acceptable backup method.
Data Restores
In the event of catastrophic hardware or software failure, the latest level 0 archives will be used to reconstruct the CLAS IT computer servers to the last known functional state. System downtime is not defined, as CLAS IT does not provide a guaranteed HA (highly available) system.
In the event of client computer software failure, CLAS IT will restore any corrupted files from the last incremental (level 1) archive. It is critical that the unit inform CLAS IT of the failure within one business day so that the file(s) can be restored. Client computer hardware failure is not covered by this policy; CLAS IT does not recommend storing data on client systems without backup schedules.
In the event of user error, CLAS IT may restore corrupted or deleted files that would take more than one business day to re-create. These restores will be performed on a “time available” basis, and may occur at any time during the next five (5) business days, and will be restored to a same-named file unless otherwise noted.
Mail Restores
As mail for faculty and staff is handled by UF Exchange and students by GatorMail, CLAS IT does not manage mail restores.
In the event of message loss, contact CLAS IT immediately and we will open a ticket on your behalf. Certain message deletions are reversible, and may be recoverable. Due to E-Discovery guidelines, messages deleted more than 14 days prior are irrecoverable.
Last revised: September 21, 2009.