Disaster Recovery recommendations and hints

You should configure Disaster Recovery to run daily, this is to stop the SQL log getting too large
Run the backup when you expect there to be no other or few other operations running, such as report retrieval or importing; for example, overnight
Time the backup so that it does not start at the same time as any other scheduled event; this includes, archiving, management information harvest and automated report retrieval

For example, if you retrieve reports hourly at 15 minutes past the hour and your report retrieval typically takes 5 minutes, time Disaster Recovery to start at 25 minutes past the hour

Do not time the backup for Midnight. This is because this is when Experian Payments Gateway performs housekeeping tasks
Run disaster recovery after archiving to reduce the amount of data that needs backing up. This reduces the possibility of problems when restoring the data
Do not start a client and try to login when the disaster recovery backup is running.

If you start a client during a disaster recovery backup, your client will be locked and you will not be able to log in. However, because the client was not active when disaster recovery was started, Experian Payments Gateway Server is not aware of the client and will not unlock it once the backup is complete. You must shutdown and restart the client machine to close this instance of Experian Payments Gateway.
Make sure all other users are logged off whenever you perform a manual backup (clicking Backup now... on the Disaster Recovery tab)

As soon as the backup starts, it locks all other clients preventing them from completing or performing any tasks and logging off. If a client is not unlocked once the disaster recovery backup is complete, you must kill the client.

Make sure your SYSADMIN user (or other super user) has an email address configured.

This is because when Disaster Recovery is abandoned, due to manual or scheduled tasks running, alerts are generated and emails are sent to SYSADMIN (super users). There are no entries added to the audit log.

Make sure your backup locations are not on the Experian Payments Gateway server machine
At least one of the locations should be off-site, or on a server that is regularly backed up with the backup stored off-site.

You should regularly perform a test installation of the disaster recovery server. Typically, perform this quarterly so that you know how to perform a restore and to check that you are backing up the correct level of data.
When restoring the SQL log after a database problem, restore up to the latest time before the problem occurred. If you do not know when that is, restore the SQL log up to the most likely safe time. If you still have a problem, undo the SQL and try again, restoring up to an earlier time.
If you need to use the Disaster Recovery Server as the live server, edit serverDefault.properties to set -dr=0.

When convenient, you should switch back to the live server:

Plan the changeover back to the live server for a quiet time
Before restoring the live server, perform a backup (click Backup now... on the Disaster Recovery tab) and then shutdown the server. You can then use this backup to bring the live server fully up-to-date, without having to restore the SQL log
On the Disaster Recovery Server, edit serverDefault.properties to set -dr=1.

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