As an ISO 9001:2000 certified company, Magna Infotech is committed to following a streamlined, feasible and simple Disaster Recovery Plan that would best serve its needs and the needs of its clients.
Magna Infotech has a detailed Disaster Recovery Plan outlined and implemented for its operations. This plan is based on the global presence of Magna Infotech – USA, India, UK and France. The whole Disaster Recovery Plan is based on good backup and recovery procedures. The illustration in the following page gives a snapshot of how Magna Infotech has implemented its backup plan.
This write up gives a brief overview of the Disaster Recovery Plan that specifically pertains to technical work.
Local Backups
1. Local backup in this case refers to individual premises of Magna Infotech in a given city. For example, Hyderabad, Chennai, Danbury, Bristol etc.
2. To maintain the integrity of code and preserve previous versions, a source code control system is used. This is maintained on a separate server for every project and the same is automatically scheduled for daily backup on the Source Code Backup Server. If the backup does not happen or fails for any reason, a log of the same is maintained and a notification is sent to the system administration group. Any problems noticed are rectified and the backup is completed.
3. Each project team member’s directory pertaining to project files is automatically scheduled for daily backup on the User Backup Server. If the backup does not happen or fails for any reason, a log of the same is maintained and a notification is sent to the system administration group. Any problems noticed are rectified and the backup is completed.
4. Databases are replicated on backup machines to ensure that critical data is not lost. This also ensures almost 100% recovery in case of any database or machine crash. The replication is done on the Database Backup Server.
5. Weekly dumps of the backups are taken on CDs and are properly labeled, sorted and stored in offsite fire-proof cabinets with proper security. Access to this is controlled.
6. There are designated system administrators in charge of the backups.
Offsite Backups
1. In addition to local backups, Magna Infotech also maintains multiple backups that are spread over different geographical regions. This is to safeguard against natural and manmade disasters in a particular region. Consequently, a pool of machines is also maintained at secured offsite facilities in
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Hyderabad, India
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Hartford, CT, USA
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Poughkeepsie, NY, USA
2. The Hyderabad Offsite backup procedure ensures that project and data files that are backed up locally in Hyderabad and Chennai at Magna’s premises are also backed up on to the servers at the offsite data center too. All database files, tables and data are also backed up here.
3. The Hartford Offsite backup procedure is the largest of all procedures and ensures that critical mail, web, project and data files are also backed up from all locations of Magna Infotech – Hyderabad, Chennai (India), Danbury, Pittsburgh (USA) and Bristol (UK). There are a total of 15 servers at this Offsite data center. This center houses Magna mail and web servers. All database files, tables and data are also backed up here.
4. The Poughkeepsie Offsite backup procedure serves as a hot backup for the Hartford Offsite backup servers.
5. In addition to the above, Magna Infotech is currently in the process of setting up an Offsite backup in UK also.
6. Since Magna Infotech has more than 700 corporate clients who are provided web hosting and e-mail services, re-routing of traffic for these clients is of the highest priority. Response times and downtime is clearly defined as per ISO standards.
While no backup strategy can guarantee 100% data integrity, the above backup strategy of Magna Infotech described above, ensures that in the event of an emergency, there is either no loss or minimal loss of work and also makes recovery possible in the shortest possible time.
Recovery Procedures
Due to the fact that there are multiple backups maintained by Magna Infotech – local as well as offsite in multiple countries, it was necessary to ensure that the Recovery procedures are well documented and individuals properly identified. These individuals who are system administrators are the first point of contact in case of an emergency.
In short, the following is the Recovery procedure:
1. In case of a machine crash for an individual, the cause is determined, necessary software repairs are made and the files are re-installed on the machine from the local User Backup server.
2. In case of a Project server crash, the cause is determined, necessary repairs to the hardware, operating system are made and files are restored from the previous day’s backup from the local Source Code Server backup.
3. In case of a Database crash, the local replication server is immediately used and the crashed database server is repaired and the reverse replication is started.
4. In case of a web server crash or a mail server crash, the secondary DNS automatically routes request to the backup server in Poughkeepsie. All DNS scripts are made to handle third level backup.
5. In case of a serious situation, wherein the local backups are not available or accessible, the backup from the offsite backup servers are used in the following manner:
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for Hyderabad and Chennai – the offsite backup from Hyderabad, India would be used
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for USA and UK – the offsite backup from Hartford, USA would be used
6. If for any reason, the backups from (5) above do not work or are not accessible, the offsite backup from Poughkeepsie, USA would be used.
The chances of all backups going bad or being inaccessible is very slim.
Natural or Man Made Disasters
In case of a natural or man made disaster in which the development centers of Magna Infotech in India are not accessible or not usable, the following would be followed:
If Hyderabad or Chennai , India is not accessible, the development would shift to other locations within Hyderabad or Chennai. As mentioned, since Magna Infotech is an associate company of the Nagarjuna Group, it has access to the excellent Nagarjuna infrastructure, including space, systems and networks. Nagarjuna Group has offices in most major cities in India.
Data recovery from backups would not be a problem as has been demonstrated in the previous sections of this document.
Disruption of service and downtime would be kept to less than a week under this plan of Magna Infotech.
Magna Infotech Offsite Secure Data Center Details
Magna Infotech' secure data center provides services such as network, performance and application monitoring, UPS, diesel backup, and fire protection. We also provide reliable, off-site data backup and disaster recovery services. Magna Infotech' expert technicians are available around the clock, resolving issues long before problems occur. Most importantly, the data center is scalable to meet the growing needs of your business.
Physical Security of Data Center
- Access to Magna Infotech offices is restricted to Magna Infotech employees only
- Access to Data Center is restricted to Magna Infotech IT staff only
- Monitored access to Data Center via Security Card and Keypad
- Data Center contents monitored 24x7 by on-call Magna Infotech technicians
- Security cameras at all exits and in data center
Data Center Features
- Separate HVAC system
- Servers with redundant power supplies, error correcting memory, and RAID disk arrays
- Replacement servers and hardware on hand
- Liebert UPS and Kohler Emergency Power Generator
- FM200 Fire Suppressant System
- Load-balanced Terminal Server/MetaFrame servers
- Fail-over ISDN, Frame Relay or Internet access available
- Firewall security
- 128- or 40-bit Encryption on data transmissions
Magna Infotech Server Environment - Click to see
Backup
- Full nightly backups of servers
- Backup tapes taken to off-site data security vendor
- Off-site tapes can be returned within one hour if necessary
Disaster Recovery/Business Contingency Plan
- Disaster Recovery contract with a certified Business Recovery Systems provider for full site and localized disaster recovery. This ensures that every database has a duplicate at a different geographical location to prevent downtime in the event of a failure at our primary location.
- Yearly disaster recovery testing
- Business Contingency Plan maintained that establishes standards, guidelines, and organizational structure to enable effective reaction in the event of a business interruption or emergency.
- In the event of a client site disaster, alternative access to Magna Infotech from another location can be quickly setup.
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