When Trouble Hits…
What do you do when trouble hits? A couple days ago I was given the chance to find that out. There was a hard disk failure on the database server where my websites reside. The webhost I’m using was fairly quick to catch the failure (as in several hours… fortunately the failure was in the middle of the night) and started to restore from backups. But oh wait, for some odd reason their backup system repeatedly backed up the data from July 29th. That means, I lost all database data from the 29th on forward. Yeah me! So I’ve been quite busy the past couple evenings getting things migrated off that server.
What are you to do to prevent this sort of disaster from happening to you?
- Redundant Server Backups - Sure, you should probably find a webhost that keeps redundant backups, but I think you should also consider getting some recommendations for a few reputable hosting providers. My hosting provider claimed to have redundant backups, but their reputation was not up to par. Oh, and make sure your backups aren’t stored on the same machine as the data.
- Redundant Personal Backups - Hey, if you want something done right - do it yourself. Your Personal Backups are JUST as important as your Server Backups, as I have recently experienced. I reccommend doing remote database backups, either on your local machine, or on another server.
- Pay Attention - Know the status of your server at all times! If your server goes down, you should know before your clients do. Trust me, your clients would rather hear it from you, than to find out on their own. It lets them know that you are taking care of them.
- Be Prepared - Have a list of your clients (phone and email) handy. Make sure that your emails dont belong to the domains you are hosting… that won’t do you any good. Send your clients an email letting them know what’s going on, and call the clients that have more important sites (money generating sites like commerce stores, etc).
- Have a Backup Ready - If your site depends on a database connection, create a non-database dependant page where you can direct traffic while the database is down. You would rather your site visitors know that a problem is being dealt with, than to have your visitors think that no one knows about the problem.
- Hang in There - It’s not the end of the world. Everyone has problems, its how you prepare for and react to them is what matters.