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The LA Fox Developer Newsletter
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July 1999
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Data Backup
(Con? from page 3)
was unreadable. When they went to restore from their backup tape they found that the tapes were all blank. The tape drive unit was on a workstation that was used by someone who came in early each day. When she arrived for work each day, the backup software displayed a fatal error message. Since it wasn’t her responsibility and she had no training on performing backups she clicked on the cancel button and went on with her day. The drive was sent to a data recovery house and the data was recovered at the cost of several thousand dollars.
Lessons Learned
1)The person responsible for performing backup has to be responsible for checking that it works correctly.
2) When all else fails, data recovery companies can often retrieve lost data.
Reading these cases, studies I find that in every instance the customer thought they were adequately safeguarding their data. In most of these cases, data loss could have been prevented by simply checking the backup logs and performing a test restore. In the case of the SQL database, data loss could have been prevented by following the manufacturers recommendation of using transaction logs stored on a different physical device.
Epilogue:
Data loss happens every day. The statistics are pretty numbing. In most cases, a company suffering complete data loss will go out of business in 90 days
As
an
IT
pr
fessional
responsibility to help safeguard this date and prevent it’s loss. If you are a corporate developer, and not personally responsible for backup of your network you might want to think about making your own private backup of the data on a regular basis. You never know when it might come in handy. If you are a consultant, you should work with your customers to make sure their backup system is working correctly. I know from personal experience that telling someone their data is irretrievably lost isn’t much fun. It’s a much more pleasant experience to tell the customer that everything is going to be OK. If you want to be able to do that you need to take steps now so that you aren’t the one saying “He’s dead Jim”.
(Ed. Note: George Sexton is owner of MHSoftware and a Microsoft MVP. He can be reached at:
george@MHSoftware.com.]
Out and About
(Can’t from page 2)
Since We Last Met
3rd Annual Southern California VFP Conference Adds More Sessions, More Space. That’s right, it’s been expanded to better address the needs of the attendees. MES has added more speakers and more vendor sessions to give “the masses” even more of a choice. So the event breaks down to a 6X5
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Out and About
(Con't from previous column),
session grid (6 separate tracks with 5 sessions in each track) for Friday, August 27th; a 6X5 session grid for Saturday, August 28th; and back to a 5X5 session grid for Sunday, August 29th. The session schedule is now up on the conference website. If you haven’t been there yet, point your browser to
http:ll
www.mesllc.com/conf99.html.
New Website Debuts. It’s been a long time coming, but I think the wait is worth it. The FoxForum, not related to CompuServe’s place of the same name, has finally opened at
http://www.foxforum.com.
Even though it’s new, this site promises to be a great.source of information and exchange of ideas. And the best part of aIl...well, not really.. .it’s absolutely free. So go there, sign up, sign in, and grow with it.
Kudos to Bill Anderson. Bill Anderson, LA Fox Vice-President and Programs, has done an exceptional job in arranging the remainder of our 1999 meeting schedule. So...hats off to you, Bill, for ajob well done!!
More About the New Place...and Kudos to Twila Miller. Unless you completely bypassed the lead article in this issue, you should know that LA Fox has found a new meeting place. Thanks to the efforts of Twila Miller, LA Fox Treasurer, we’ve been able to move our meetings back to 7:30 PM, which many members felt was a more reasonable time, we’re able to save a substantial amount of money annually (which means lots-’othings to the group). So.. .a tip of the hat to her! Somethinq else you should know. ..the LA Fox Board of Directors will now be meeting at 7:00 PM before each meeting and, as is our custom, every member who’s interested and current (“paid-up”) is invited to participate. So, if you’re there and you’re so inclined, pop in for a visit.
The New LA Fox Mail Server (or, “How to Reach Every Member of the Board in One Easy e-Mail”). We now have a quick method for our members to reach all of the LA Fox Board members with one message. Just address your e-mail to board©Iafox.org and each of us will receive a copy.
La Fox Website About to be Remodeled. We’re about to revamp our website. The website, already an award winner (See May 1999.), should be remodeled over the next thirty days and we’d like your input as to features you’d like to see implemented, such as a “members only” section, a local/national job board, member listing with qualification/experience/expertise, etc. So, if you have any ideas, please e-mail me at brlee@earthlink.net
Well, like Porky Pig used to say....”Th-th-th-th-th-that’s all folks!!” Hope to see you at the next meeting...
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