Recent Articles


Subscribe to RSS feed

How to Get Disaster Recovery Certification

September 11th, 2009 by DatabaseGuides

Disaster recovery certification for IT professionals is becoming a necessary pre-requisite for anyone involved in business continuity planning, which has taken on added importance since the unfortunate events of September 11th in New York. In the past, IT professionals would plan for major systems faults, but now planning for entire data center destruction is necessary.

Business continuity is taken seriously by management in most major corporations, and IT staff with disaster recovery certification are in demand, so much so, that salary and benefits are presently higher for qualified experts. For the foreseeable future, certification from professional IT institutes are likely to better received than general information systems diplomas, mostly due to the complexity of the subject and importance of disaster recovery.

Current certification programs are for existing IT personnel already employed in the role and require a minimum amount of experience before being eligible for training, although there does seem to be some flexibility in this rule.

Studying online is a popular option for many hard working IT professionals who are able use quiet time in the office to work thru course notes and exercises. Finding a reputable online training provider offering disaster recovery certification is important, every certification provider is different and not all courses are created equal.

Disaster Recovery Certificate

Consideration should also be given to the assessment criteria for disaster recovery certification  examinations, will candidates be able to complete this within the workplace or locally, or is extensive travel to another city required, and if so, how much time away from home needs to be allocated.

Conversely, on campus study may be a better option for many students with two or four day seminar style course available. Undertaking disaster recovery certification in person exposes the student to other IT professionals also working towards certification giving opportunities for networking which may be invaluable as disaster recovery planning is undertaken within the workplace.

Examinations for disaster recovery certification need to be prepared for since a minimum 75% pass is required to graduate from many courses. The cost of taking the exam is levied for each separate time the exam is taken, and with prices up to several hundred dollars failing and needing to resit could be costly, and is an expense most employers would be unhappy to pay twice.

Re-certification every year or every other year may be a constituent requirement of the disaster recovery certification course undertaken, particularly for professionals working in senior business continuity roles within IT. Reasons for ongoing assessment are related to the speed of technology change, something most IT personnel are used to, but with advances in server and networking systems occurring every few months, ongoing assessment is designed to ensure graduates are always working with current theory.

Some of the most popular qualifications for IT professionals in disaster recovery include the Associate Business Continuity Professional (ABCP),  Certified Business Continuity Professional (CBCP), Master Business Continuity Professional (MBCP), Business Continuity Certified Planner (BCCP), Business Continuity Certified Specialist (BCCS), Disaster Recovery Certified Specialist (DRCS), Business Continuity Certified Expert (BCCE), Disaster Recovery Certified Expert (DRCE), and Master of Science in Information Security (MSISE).

Related Posts:

Posted in Disaster Recovery | | 0 Comments

Remote DBA or Database Administration Services

September 11th, 2009 by DatabaseGuides

With database management playing an important role in the success of any business venture, it is just as important to pay attention to who’s in charge of your company’s database system.

Suffice it to say that when your database management system is not working to benefit your business, there will be hell to pay in a manner of speaking.  Deliveries may not be made on time, clients could get irate, and basically, you could lose a good amount of business for one simple reason – your database management system is chaotic.  This is why your choice of a database administrator could make a huge difference between your business moving forward and getting left behind by the competition.

Remote Database Administrator

Now that you’ve established the fact that you need the help of an expert when it comes to your database management, the next thing you should think about is where to get your database administrator or manager and what type of DBA you really want.

For most large-scale enterprises, seeking the help of a professional database administrator outside of their work pool is their first choice.  Depending on what exactly you need, a remote database administrator could just be what you need to take care of all your data, especially if you want to run it within a network of users for your company.

Remote Database

For one thing, getting the services of an RDBA or Remote Database Administrator could be more cost-effective than keeping an in-house DBA.  When you consider the benefits that you have to provide for an in-house DBA plus having the responsibility of being answerable for him or her, an RDBA really is more affordable and more effective.

Another thing is that when you have a dedicated team of experts whose sole task is to manage your database, your DBMS will be more efficient because it’s the team’s responsibility to make sure that your DBMS is working at maximum performance.

Remote Database Administrator Versus In-House DBA

Now, when you consider the pros and cons of both, you could decide that an RDBA is the way to go.  With an in-house DBA, you not only have to pay more because you pay for his or her overhead expenses as well, but you also run the risk of multi-tasking your DBA; hence, their concentration is not focused on your database management system alone but a whole other list of IT-related tasks in the office.

A dedicated team fully focused on taking care of your database management system means that they are forever watchful of what goes on with your DBSM 24/7; hence, they can troubleshoot faster and more efficiently should errors in the system occur.

With most RDBA services, you can find the perfect person for the job, depending on your requirements, especially if you undertake specific projects from time to time that need the expertise of a good DBA.

You also don’t have to worry about finding a good RDBA because, just by searching the internet, you can already get a few good companies whose expertise includes database management.

Related Posts:

Posted in DBA | | 0 Comments

What is a BLOB or Binary Large Object?

September 11th, 2009 by DatabaseGuides

Binary Large Object, also known as a BLOB, is a compilation of binary data stored as a single unit in a database management system.  Binary Large Object (BLOB) usually refers to images, audio and other multimedia data, but sometimes, these data are in the BLOB format.  Keep in mind that the BLOB format data are not universal.

The History of the Binary Large Object or BLOB

Binary large object or BLOB is originally just vague chunks of data developed by Jim Starkey, who described the word “BLOB” as the creature that ate Cincinnati and Cleveland.  Then later on, Terry Mckiever made a “backronym” for the BLOB as Basic Large Object.  Today, the acronym BLOB is used to back up the concept of the Binary Large Object.

Initially, the word “BLOB” was used to describe the transferring of large volume of data from one database to another without any system failure or inconsistencies.  The idea of blobbing was derived from the image of a person transferring a large amount of food from one plate to another.  By using the BLOB, the sharing of data will only take a small amount of time, and the checking and filtering will depend on the host of the database.  That’s why moving large data is called “blobbing”.

The notion of Blobbing was adapted by IBM’s DB2, especially when disk space came cheaper than the usual.

What is a BLOB or Binary Large Object? Binary

Uses of Binary Large Object or BLOB

In order for a database to become effective, this particular database must allow storage and manipulation of large BLOBs.  Although BLOBs require a great deal of stress for disk spaces, databases should effectively manage a way to store these large volumes of data in a single system.  There are several ways in handling a BLOB effectively.  You can store an image and convert it as a single BLOB.  Although storing an image as a single BLOB is a convenient idea, it may pose some problem.  Storing a 50 MB image may take some time, especially when it is downloaded in the internet.  Users can also store BLOBS in a middle-tier system.  In storing BLOBs, users can utilize several management systems as well as web servers.  Lastly, BLOBs can be stored effectively by dividing files in tiles with the use of compressors as well as web servers.

Effects of BLOBs in Special Operations

When storing BLOBs, special operations may be affected, and backup operations will definitely be affected, especially if the backup system is not prepared to hold large volumes of data.  Recovering data using a restoring model may pose some risks like transaction loss and decline of database performance.  BLOBs also affect the copying and logged operations.  If you are transferring large BLOB data, you should consider changing your packet data server to accommodate larger BLOBs and effectively transfer files from one database to another.  BLOBs also affect search operations.  When searching a BLOB data in a specific table, a user must integrate a BLOB column to effectively access the data.  With the use of the search operation, the BLOB will be extracted and filtered properly.

Related Posts:

Posted in Services | | 0 Comments

What are High Availability Clusters

September 11th, 2009 by DatabaseGuides

High availability clusters (HA clusters), also known as failover clusters, are a network of servers configured to operate as a single machine with data backups occurring in real time so that in the event of a failure in the network backup machines will take over seamlessly and continue to operate. High availability clusters are designed to operate automatically and not need the intervention of an IT support person to restart the network.

A single server that fails results in downtime of the network, in some organizations this can be measured in days or weeks and threatens business continuity. Even short period downtime of critical servers can in some instances result in significant losses of income. Building fault tolerant servers with redundant power supplies, duplicated components, and RAID storage offers some protection of data and improved uptime, yet still offers only a single CPU and if that fails so too will the server.

By contrast, high availability clustered servers are setup with intelligent software that monitors all servers within the cluster for problems, and are designed to keep going regardless of component failures. In business critical situations downtime is costly both in terms of revenue and customer trust, and in extreme situations such as hospitals may even be life threatening.

High Availability Clusters

Very few Fortune 500 companies and other major corporations operate without high availability clusters. Each node in the cluster has the capability to take over from another, so even though some servers are properly setup as backup servers ready to assume primary server roles, the same could be said in reverse. Clustered backup servers are therefore never configured in a cold or warm state, they are in fact always hot, with real time synchronization occurring.

Enhancing a clustered server setup for even more redundancy usually requires setting up geographically disparate data centers with very high speed network connections, that are synchronized the same way, although the hope is that a major disaster affecting the corporation won’t shut down the network.

Multiple site high availability clusters are more expensive to setup, and more difficult to configure, but once the network is operational maintenance is routine. Servers are connected using multiple links from different carriers ensuring further redundancy. Typically data centers are chosen that don’t share the same risks of disaster, so a data center in California that could be affected by earthquake might be mirrored with a center in Chicago that would not be affected.

High availability clustering design is technically demanding and complex, and can be quite tricky to configure to ensure load balancing is equally matched across all servers. Seamless load balancing of some tasks such as serving web pages can be accomplished quite easily, but is less easy with transactional tasks or read/write services unless disk mirroring is very close to real time and sessions can be shared across servers.

Software for running a high availability cluster is readily available, however applications will need to be tested for robustness, particularly it’s handling of data in the event of a crash and use of non-volatile storage in preference to shared storage.

Related Posts:

Posted in High Availability | | 0 Comments

What are High Availability Servers?

September 11th, 2009 by DatabaseGuides

High availability servers a modern implementation of server hardware that are designed to extremely high fault tolerance levels to keep performing even in the event of a failed component, and are the latest buzzword in server technology with major CPU designers hailing the technology as the next evolutionary step.

Traditionally, server hardware and software have been designed to optimize the functions of a single CPU controlling memory, storage, and input/output, leading to never satisfactory multitasking that has to a great extent been dependent on operating system software juggling processes within the CPU. This method gives the illusion of multitasking, but is more accurately described as task switching rather than multitasking.

Current designs of high availability servers known as shared memory mulitprocessors (SMP) offer increasing numbers of single processors in a single server, and making use of larger banks of shared memory, allowing for scalable allocation of tasks and consequently faster processing. Ultimately SMPs are designed for more reliable service and better uptime.

Advances in hot swap technology are actively used within high availability servers and is now used not just in USB accessories, but also in hard drives, memory, video cards, even some CPUs, allowing for online spares to be provisioned. The ability of a server to continue functioning thru intelligent allocation based on the number of working components within the server is a major development offering greater than average up-times.

High Availability

A component that fails is intelligently ignored until IT has the chance to replace the component. In combination with RAID storage and larger memory blocks, modern servers are evolving from single computers into mini networks and can competently be used in smaller storage area networks with a reduced overall number of servers.

Using high availability servers in this manner also allows for more robust server mirroring and clustering that is internally optimized with it’s own redundancies built in, reducing the need for costly backup networks, and making outsourced disaster recovery data centers a very attractive option despite limits to network speed that make offsite backup less appealing.

As the technology improves, software vendors are anticipating huge demand for new generations of server management software that not only manages a single multiprocessor server, but is also able to manage data across smaller more powerful clustered networks.

Particularly important in high availability server clusters is proper configuration of server load balancing, a technique where two or more servers are able to process similar tasks but accessing the same database, thus allowing for more users concurrently. It seems moot to suggest load balancing needs to be considered, yet many administrators don’t tune their networks for optimal balancing leading to slower performance and potential glitches.

Maintaining high availability servers requires up to date and specialist knowledge of the tools and technologies used to ensure operating platforms are more secure against attack and resilient against failure. Staff employed in this important function should be certified by one of the major vendors as having been tested and found to pass the relevant examiniations.

Related Posts:

Posted in High Availability | | 0 Comments

What Are Disaster Recovery Services

September 11th, 2009 by DatabaseGuides

Disaster recovery services are those usually provided by third party contractors in the event of  disaster affecting IT operations in-house. Most providers offer dedicated data centers and networking capabilities to ensure survival of data and continuity of business in the days and weeks after allowing time for full recovery or relocation of the organization’s IT infrastructure.

Being prepared for unforeseen disasters requires extensive pre-disaster planning and consultation with major stakeholders as well as service providers to ensure business operations are protected, namely that data and configuration backups are stored securely, and will be available very short term or in real time when needed.

Data though is just one aspect of disaster recovery, the others being communications and facilities. Since September 11th many corporations are now required by their stockholders and by government regulation to ensure continuity of business operations if one or several branch offices are destroyed, even to the extent of relocating key staff or splitting functions across diverse locations.

Service providers make all of this easy by investing in staff and assets and focusing on their core business of helping corporations recover from disasters. By contracting with third party service providers the IT administrator is able to focus on operations, the job of monitoring and reporting on backup systems being effectively delegated.

Major vendors of disaster recovery services all offer hot site failover. with the result the end user who may be located on the other side of the world will not even be aware the primary data center has been affected. Customers and other stakeholders of the corporation will still expect reliable service, even if the corporate head office has been destroyed.

What Are Disaster Recovery Services disaster recovery services

Disaster recovery data centers provided by service providers allow for complete duplicates of the corporation’s IT infrastructure to be created and mirror all processes ready to take over in an instant, and whilst this is an expensive precaution its value is negligible for corporations that cost seconds of downtime in the millions of dollars.

Offsite storage of hardware that can be brought online in the event of a disaster is a more affordable solution for smaller corporations that only requires specifying the hardware and software needed and making sure that service providers are able to restore data to the backup servers on activation.

Many corporations especially at the smaller end of the scale without a highly skilled team of IT professionals working in-house, often neglect to plan for continuity of communications such as email.

Disaster recovery services that offer routing of email communication to third party servers are easily configured using DNS, prevent loss of email and enable staff to respond as soon as service is restored.

An increasingly popular service offered by major vendors is work area recovery in the event of the corporate offices becoming unusable. Vendors undertake to make office space available in their own premises with pre-connected workstations and telecommunications equipment, and all of the networking requirements provided. In extreme situations portable offices housed within containers can be made available.

Related Posts:

Posted in Disaster Recovery | | 0 Comments

What is a Data Mart?

September 11th, 2009 by DatabaseGuides

Do you want to organize your own business?  To make your business up-to-date and successful, you need to gather significant tools to improve your data storage as well as database organization.  The most brilliant tool you can use when establishing your business is the data mart.  In this article, we will know more about data mart and its significance to businesses.

All about Data Mart

Data mart is a division of the organizational data store, which usually is designed for a specific purpose.  A data mart is usually distributed to maintain business needs.  Data mart is generally an analytical data store that is designed to meet the needs of specific business communities.  Most data marts are derivatives of a data house ware.  But oftentimes, data house ware is developed from the combination of several data marts.

What is a Data Mart? data mart

Oftentimes, writers would relate data mart and data house ware, but these two terms have different uses.  Data mart generates from the notion of the user’s needs, while data house ware generates from the analysis of the available data as well as how it can be collected.  In a more constructed manner, data mart is defined as a storehouse of gathered data from various data sources.  A data mart is designed to serve a particular community.  On the other hand, a data house ware is a system of gathered data, which is distributed to other data stores.  In short, a data house ware seems to become fragment of ideas, while a data mart connects to an immediate purpose.  Data mart gathers its information from enterprises (wide database or data warehouse).  By using the data mart, users will have the opportunity to meet their specific demands in terms of presentation, up-to-date amenities as well as content and analysis.

In a certain corporation, several data marts are available to strictly follow its purpose or design.  For instance, a single data mart can become dependent or related to other data marts.  In a particular department, there can only be one data source and one owner of the data mart, including its hardware and software.  In this manner, this certain department can independently manipulate and store its data without affecting the other data marts.

Why Create a Data Mart?

In general, data mart is designed to aid in business.  Creating a data mart will help in the easy access of frequently needed information from the database.  When a certain member of a community requires essential information for a project proposal, the member can easily dig up the files with the use of a data mart.  Creating a data mart can also make a clear view of the important data for a group of users.  Another reason for creating a data mart is its accessibility to both apprentices and experts.  A data mart can improve the response of end-users.  Moreover, a data mart is cost-friendly as well as user-friendly.  Potential users of a data mart will be defined appropriately.

With the use of a data mart, every business will definitely be in order.  Thus, flow of data from every department will be properly disseminated.

Related Posts:

Posted in Data Integration | | 0 Comments

What is a Database Trigger?

September 11th, 2009 by DatabaseGuides

A database trigger is a form of stored procedure which is immediately processed in response to certain events with a database.  A database trigger may allow the user to block any transactions, perform logging as well as modifying data within the database.  Trigger can be classified into two types – the “row” triggers and the “statement” triggers.  “Row” triggers usually occur for every row of a specific table, while “statement” triggers can only be executed once in every INSERT (a new record or input is being placed in the database), UPDATE (a record is being changed) and DELETE (a record is being removed) statement.  Keep in mind that triggers cannot be executed in the SELECT statement.

Other types of triggers include “BEFORE” and “AFTER” triggers.  “BEFORE” triggers usually performs the triggering action before the triggering statement.  On the other hand, “AFTER” triggers are usually performed after the triggering statement.

When using database triggers, a user must consider these following effects:

1.         Data triggers don’t accept argument, but they temporarily store affected data in specific tables.

2.         Data triggers cannot work on rollback operations because they are a part of an SQL server.  Triggers can only be done autonomously.

If data triggers are not properly written, triggers may develop and receive erroneous data.

What is a Database Trigger? database trigger

How to Utilize Database Triggers

Database triggers are used to have a highly-modified database management system.  For instance, users can organize their weekly files by only using several commands or triggers.  Other uses of database triggers include security of important files.  Database triggers automatically produce derived column values.  It also checks invalid transactions, implement security authorization as well as integrity among users.  Moreover, database triggers allow transparency in logging, complexity in auditing, integration in table replication as well as implementation of business rules plus accessibility of data from data tables.

Components of a Database Trigger

To better understand the function of a database trigger, you need to learn about the components of a database trigger.

The first part is the triggering statement or event.  The triggering statement or event is an SQL code that executes a trigger to be activated.  A triggering statement may indicate an UPDATE, an INSERT or a DELETE procedure.  The second part is the trigger restriction.  The trigger restriction refers to a logical or Boolean expression.  This expression should be TRUE so that the trigger will be implemented.  The trigger will not be executed if the expression is incorrect or FALSE.  Trigger restriction is an alternative procedure available in each row of the table.  Trigger restriction works by monitoring the procedure made in each table.  Just use the WHEN clause during the execution of the trigger restriction.  The last part of the database trigger is the trigger action.  The trigger action is executed when the triggering statement is employed and the expression is TRUE.  Just like the stored procedure, the trigger action contains the SQL statement and the PL/SQL code.

In using the database trigger, you need to specify the statement as well as the validity of the expression.

Related Posts:

Posted in General | | 0 Comments

What is a Disaster Recovery Data Center

September 11th, 2009 by DatabaseGuides

As corporate dependence on IT solutions continues to grow in the early 21st century, demand for reliable, cost effective disaster recovery data centers is expected to be one of the major growth markets for server and networking suppliers in their search for business continuity solutions in the event of unforeseen disaster striking.

Disaster recovery has taken on more urgency with the growth of computer use within global corporations, and uptake in developing nations. Recent tragedies such as 9/11, North-Eastern  power blackouts, or the Asian tsunami underscore how vulnerable networks are to disruption, so emphasis on securing data has taken on new importance.

Major server suppliers are now redirecting efforts toward dedicated disaster recovery data centers using real time synchronization of data between geographically diverse servers and data storage networks. A range of disaster recovery solutions such as portable container sized data centers and larger campus style data centers are now being built and designed.

Disaster recovery data centers have the distinct advantage of outsourced equipment and infrastructure which is costly to duplicate, and economies of scale become attractive when many hundreds of thousand servers are located in shared facilities rather than leasing a separate building and constructing redundant systems that otherwise may not be used.

Disaster Recovery Data Center

With advances in network speeds and topology, and the advent of cloud computing, real time synchronization of data has become feasible for corporations operating across national boundaries, in fact, it is now feasible to locate disaster recovery data centers intercontinentally offering major security advantages for corporations based in unstable or developing markets.

Cloud computing with respect to disaster recovery now allows almost instant recovery measured in seconds and minutes compared to previously attainable recovery times of hours or days for the most technologically competent corporations.

Data centers are specialized complexes, capable of providing sufficient independent power for hours or days while outside services are restored, exactly the type of security that isn’t possible for most small to mid sized corporations, and even large national corporations may struggle to budget for such disaster recovery expense, so outsourcing server management is in many cases the only option.

The downside of outsourcing to a separate disaster recovery data center comes down to trust, especially if the center owner is a different corporation from the one sub-contracted to provide networking services. The big five server manufacturers all provide data centers for disaster recovery, some as part of their regular server farm offerings, others in dedicated centers that are completely separate.

The rationale for separate separate disaster recovery data centers being more need for security which regular data centers may not be able to provide given the number of personnel with access to servers. Whilst the theory may seem overrated, certainly some of the largest research universities and financial institutions have committed to dedicated data centers for the security they afford.

The major owners of disaster recovery data centers are now, and have been for several years, undertaking security investigations into key staff before appointment to the data center, and this should be a mandatory requirement for corporations considering outsourced backup in dedicated disaster recovery data centers.

Related Posts:

Posted in Backup | | 0 Comments

What is a Disaster Recovery Plan?

September 11th, 2009 by DatabaseGuides

Disaster recovery planning is an IT function often involving a whole of business team whose role it is to anticipate disasters of any scale, determine the effects these would have on business continuity, and then create a set of policies and procedures for minimizing downtime and expediting recovery to pre-disaster levels.

In smaller corporations the disaster recovery plan may in fact be just a sheets of paper listing steps to take when the unforeseen occurs, in fact, smaller organizations may be able to download disaster recovery templates from expert websites and simply follow the instructions for completing the audit and creating the recovery plan.

However, larger corporations and the government sector typically require a great deal more detail in their disaster recovery plan which will more likely be a set of procedures and policies filling several folders and requiring extensive staff training from board level right down to data entry operators.

Planning for disaster recovery requires detailed business risk analysis, and a keen understanding of the effect various disasters will likely have on the business, from temporary setbacks that can be coped with, right thru to disasters that threaten the viability of the corporation in the short and long term after the plan is implemented.

Disaster Recovery Plan

In the pre-planning stage an audit by certified disaster recovery experts should be carried out. This may take considerable time to complete but is absolutely necessary for ensuring some critical measure is not forgotten. A small detail could have huge ramifications.

Probably the most important step in preparing a disaster recovery plan, the pre-planning stage will pick up potential threats to data storage, specifically whether off-site backups will be affected by the same disaster that incapacitates the live data. Similarly, a professionally undertaken audit should be able to establish if redundancies in networking will be affected by the disaster.

Having determined the threats to the business data, analysis of recovery options and budgeting for them takes place, and at this stage the complete plan takes shape. This is a commercially sensitive document and is usually known in its entirety to only the most trusted corporate officers.

No disaster recovery plan is ever complete without also testing its efficacy, a process that allows for fine tuning and fault analysis well before ever having to rely on the plan for business continuity. Testing the recovery plan should be considered a necessary expense of producing the plan rather than an unneeded cost after the fact. Far too many corporations neglect testing their systems and procedures, resulting in business closure.

Once the disaster recovery plan is complete, any authorized officer of the organization should be able to refer to it in the event of a major disaster, and sad to say, this means not keeping the plan in soft copy on the Intranet. Printed copies need to be distributed to relevant personnel, and better yet, a copy of the plan needs to be stored off-site. Never take for granted the security of the head office.

Related Posts:

Posted in Disaster Recovery | | 0 Comments

« Previous Entries Next Entries »

Categories

Archives