Rainy days, backpacking, and SQL Server Disaster Recovery.

What do rainy days, backpacking, and SQL Server Disaster Recovery have in common?

Over the past several years I’ve been section hiking the Appalachian Trail. For my first trip, I started at the southern terminus, Springer Mountain, Georgia, and hiked northbound for 137 miles to Nantahala, North Carolina. It took just over a week.

Each time I go to the Appalachian Trail, I pick up where I left off the prior time. My last trek ended in Roanoke, Virginia. And that’s where I’ll pick back up for my next trek.

So far, I’ve completed 730 miles of the AT.

And it was pouring rain for many of those miles. I guess that’s why rainy days reminds me of backpacking.

I know that rain may be part of the trek. So rain is part of my training for the trek. That’s why when I saw that it was raining this morning, I put on my rain jacket and I put in a few miles before breakfast.

Practice matters.

I can’t choose the weather, I can only prepare for it.

You can’t choose when you’ll need your SQL Server Disaster Recovery Plans

The same is true with your SQL Server environment. Practice matters.

SQL Server is robust and reliable. But things can and do happen. Disasters strike. Corruption happens. Data is deleted. Ransomware exists.

You cannot choose when you’ll need to restore from a backup, but you can prepare for it. You cannot choose when you’ll need to failover to your DR site, but you can prepare for it.

Prepare for a disaster before it happens.

What should you do?

• Practice. Restore key databases to test systems so you know exactly what must be done. Failover to the other node. Practice failing over to your DR site. Practice everything that is critical to your operations.
• Document. Document the each step. Create a playbook to follow during an emergency. Know how long it’ll take to restore a critical database. Document everything that must be done to respond to a disaster.
• Refine. Refine your process. Update the documentation. Look for process gaps and adjust.
• Repeat. Disaster Recovery is not a checkbox to check. It’s a process to practice.

Document the steps so that if a key person is on vacation when it needs to be done, you don’t have to interrupt them.Refine. Refine and hone your process every time you practice. Look for gaps and adjust. Update documentation.

You cannot choose when, but you can choose to be prepared.

Practice matters. Practice what matters.

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