Implementing A Disaster Recovery System

Today I wanted to share the different ways of maintaining a Disaster Recovery (DR) system. One of the most important functions that a Database Administrator has… is to design and implement a DR plan for a production environment. Planning for a disaster has the following aspects:
1. Creating a backup plan for all databases
2. Setting up a “warm” backup server with the databases that are critical
3. Testing the backups at regular intervals
4. Circulating backups for off-site storage
5. Documenting the backup recovery system and to train co-workers in DR
procedures

Here are the different methods for maintaining a DR system:
1. SQL Server Cluster (SQL Server 2000 and 2005)
2. Warm Standby Server (SQL Server 2000 and 2005)
3. This can be maintained by log shipping, RPCs (job based), Transaction
Replication or through DTS or SSIS.

DR enhancements in SQL Server 2005
1. Database Mirroring
2. Peer To Peer Replication

I suggest to read up on each of these methods and decide which DR system fits your back-end infrastructure.

Tags: 2000, 2005, cluster, database mirroring, disaster recovery, SQL Server, warm standby