Data Backup Policy
Scope
This defines the backup policy for servers and systems within the university which are expected to have their data protected. Covered systems include most production servers, file servers, and NAS devices.
Not Covered by this policy:
- Development and test servers
- Servers which provide redundant roles for primary services such as DNS.
- Personal devices (PCs, tablets, phones)
- Files stored on OneDrive for Business or Office 365 Groups.
Policy Statement
Frequency
Backups fall under 2 categories, daily and weekly. Most servers are backed up on a daily basis. Servers on a weekly schedule will either be backed up Saturday night or Sunday night.
Replication
The most recent 2 weeks of backups will be replicated off-site to our managed service provider for enterprise replication.
Backups Retention
The standard retention period for backups of most servers is 2 months. The default retention for servers whose role is unknown will be one month.
Restores
Users needing to restore either a file, set of files, or an entire server will submit a ticket through the help desk, including at least a date from which to restore the data, and if requesting a specific file or set of files, the server name and the location of the files on the server.
Responsibility
Backups fall under the jurisdiction of the UIT Infrastructure group. Additionally, the Operations team within Infrastructure is responsible for managing backups, restores, and replication. SQL backups and restores will be managed by the Infrastructure team database administrator.
Testing
The ability to restore data all types of data from backups will be tested periodically.
Definitions
- Backup - Saving of files and configuration data of servers onto disk.
- Replication - Copying backups to a separate (preferably remote) location to provide a redundant copy of the Primary Backup system.
- Restore - The process of recovering lost or corrupted data. This can be anything from a file, a set of files, or a whole server.
- Backup Retention - How long a backup is kept before being removed from the system.
- Deduplication - The process of a backup tool finding and keeping only unique parts of a file.
- Synthetic Full - A synthetic full backup backs up only the data that changed since the last backup, then combines it with the previous full backup to create a new full backup.
Related Information
Environment
- Dell EMC Avamar appliance uses variable-block deduplication and synthetic full backups to protect VMWare servers, physical servers, and Network Attached Storage (NAS) data. All data is sent to the Data Domain
- Dell EMC Data Domain backup appliance provides deduplicated disk storage for backups.
- Data Domain Boost for Enterprise Applications agent and script to back up SQL databases directly to the Data Domain
- AvePoint DocAve backs up the Sharepoint farm to Data Domain.
- US Signal Enterprise Replication for off-site storage of backups.
History
11-Oct-2017 Updated by Systems Analyst, Justin Hughes
13-Mar-2012 - Note: This policy is a draft and is not yet in effect.
08-May-2012 Approved by Director of Infrastructure, Brian Israel
20-Mar-2009 Policy created
Policy Information
Data Policy 400.07.01
Owner
University Information Technology - Infrastructure
Approved By
Chief Information Officer
Chief Financial Officer
Director of Infrastructure - 08-May-2012
Callstack:
at (IT_Forms_and_Policies/Policies/Data_Policies/Data_Backup_Policy), /content/body/div[8]/pre, line 2, column 1