CommCell recovery is a set of procedures used to prepare for and recover from a CommCell disaster. A CommCell disaster can be defined as any of the following:
- Loss of CommServe functionality (CommServe host or services failure)
- Loss of access to storage resources (MediaAgent or library failure)
- Loss of a production service (client or application failure) due to lost or corrupted data
Restoring functionality for your organization may involve replacing failed or outdated hardware, reinstalling software, renaming hosts, changing IP addresses (for licensing), importing tapes, or restoring the CommCell database. Any disaster recovery scenario that you design involves restoring the functionality of one or more of these components.
CommCell Recovery Types
CommCell recovery types are defined by your organization’s Recovery Time Objectives (RTO) and Recovery Point Objectives (RPO). Achieving these objectives depends on the level of disaster preparedness.
Disaster preparedness varies across different levels. According to the Seven Tiers of Disaster Recovery:
- Tier 0: No off-site data and no backup strategy
- Tier 7: A highly automated, business-integrated solution that enables a complete and automatic failover of all resources from one site to another
Regardless of the disaster recovery tier implemented for business continuity, recovering CommCell functionality requires recovery of the following major components in the order listed:
- CommServe functionality
- MediaAgent functionality
- Access to protected storage (library/media)
- Client functionality
Depending on your CommCell environment and the scope of recovery, you can complete steps 2, 3, and 4 in phases. This approach enables you to recover priority clients while other MediaAgents, data, and client hosts are brought online.
You can reduce recovery time by pre-configuring computer hosts and software as alternative or standby systems for critical CommCell components.