Data Recovery Best Practices Kit

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Data Recovery Best Practices Kit

White Papers

Emergence of Business Continuity to Ensure Business & IT Operations

Planning For & Surviving a Data Disaster

Articles

Protect Your Data from Extreme Weather

How to Incorporate Data Recovery Into Your Server Recovery Business

Continuity Plan

Recovery Guides

Consumer Data Recovery Guide

Small-to-Medium Business Data Recovery Guide

Enterprise Business Data Recovery Guide

Information & Tip Sheets

The Critical Need for Data Recovery

Ontrack

®

_{Data Recovery Quick Reference Guide}

Ontrack

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_{Data Recovery Quick Reference Guide}

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An Altegrity Company

Solutions to successfully meet the requirements of business continuity.

Emergence of Business Continuity to Ensure Business

and IT Operations

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Kroll Ontrack, Ontrack and other Kroll Ontrack brand and product names referred to herein are trademarks or registered trademarks of Kroll Ontrack Inc. and/or its parent company, Kroll Inc., in the United States and/or other countries.

Introduction

Use of Virtualization Technology as a Business

Continuity Tool

Challenges of Managing Virtualization Infrastructures

Maintaining Your Business Continuity Advantage

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Introduction

Over the past two decades, the practice of ensuring business continuity has matured as a business requirement within the corporate environment. In the early 90s, business continuity was conceived as a solution to protect mainframe computer systems and early data centers during a potential crisis or full-blown disaster. Business continuity was originally called “disaster recovery” and consisted of project planning and support from equipment vendors. As the profession developed, disaster recovery planning became a subset of an organization’s business continuity plan. The business continuity plan is now a comprehensive corporate policy that ensures that all of a business’ departments can successfully operate with minimal or limited impact during a disruptive event1_{. Thus, a disaster recovery plan and} emergency response procedures are part of the larger business continuity plan. What started as a formal procedure to protect expensive computer equipment has crossed over to protect all elements of a business organization.

An unrelated development, virtualization technology, or software that emulates computer hardware, has enabled the IT industry to consolidate data centers, revolutionizing the IT industry. These two developments, business continuity and virtualization technology, have increased IT operational efficiency and helped corporations meet business continuity objectives. Organizations benefit due to reductions in cost and increased protection of critical IT computer systems and data assets.

According to Forrester Research’s report on the business state of disaster recovery preparedness, a joint effort with the Disaster Recovery Journal2_{, many organizations} have improved their disaster recovery capabilities over the past few years. Despite a slow economy, survey respondents reported an increased confidence in being prepared for a data center disaster or site failure. It is noteworthy that the top causes of declared disasters or business disruption events include: power failure, IT hardware failure, natural disaster, and human error (see Figure 1). These common events have plagued information technology for years.

The business

continuity

plan is now a

comprehensive

corporate policy

that ensures that

all of a business’

departments

can successfully

operate with

minimal or limited

impact during a

disruptive event.

1

2

“What was the cause(s) of your most significant disaster declaration(s) or major business disruption?” Power failure IT hardware failure Network failure Winter storm Human error Flood IT software failure Fire Other Hurricane Tornado Earthquake Terrorism We have not declared a disaster or

had a major business disruption

44% 24% 15% 14% 13% 13% 11% 6% 5% 4% 2% 1% 1% 36%

Base: 200 disaster recovery decision makers and influencers at business globally (multiple responses accepted) Source: Forrester/Disaster Recovery Journal November 2010 Global Disaster Recovery Preparedness Online Survey

(figure 1)

1_{For purposes of this article a business disruption is anything that prevents day-to-day work from being done, including power disruption, downed phone lines, and so forth. A}

data disaster occurs when data is corrupted. Hence, a data disaster is a subset of business disruption.

2_{Forrester Research’s 2010 report on the business state of disaster recovery preparedness, a joint effort with the Disaster Recovery Journal:}

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Forty-seven percent of survey respondents acknowledged that they had calculated the cost of critical system downtime. This is a difficult cost to analyze because it takes into consideration not only productivity losses, missed sales opportunities, and staff’s hourly time, but also less quantifiable impacts to downtime such as damage to corporate image and customer confidence. Yet according to the survey, only 15 percent of respondents could actually put a number to the cost of downtime; it averaged nearly $145,000 USD per hour. A staggering cost indeed. Adam Sills, vice president of errors and omissions with Allied World U.S., a reinsurance company that provides specific technology-based insurance policies, reports that there is a growing need for additional protection against business interruptions. The costs of a business interruption, whether due to network attack, data breach, or natural disaster, “can be a rude awakening for an organization,” says Sills. The additional expense of researching the root causes and damage impact can be more than what traditional business insurance covers. As such, Sills reports that many of his clients have purchased technology insurance policies to mitigate risks presented by business interruption.

Staying prepared requires more than having a documented business continuity plan; it requires teamwork from all stakeholders. Having a stake helps to ensure that business operations will be maintained in the event of a disruption. Unfortunately, “many plans are written for auditors,” says Don Stewart, director of professional services at Ongoing Operations, a non-profit business continuity service provider for U.S. credit unions. “Plans written at the last minute because an auditor will be arriving onsite—that cycle needs to be broken,” Stewart says, and he recommends that a good plan starts with a risk impact analysis. Most companies, according to Stewart, will purchase an in-depth risk assessment and then do nothing about it. “The report just sits there with no further actions being taken.” Organizations must continually improve their business continuity and disaster recovery plans. The advent of virtualization technology has enabled more organizations to protect their business operations.

Use of Virtualization Technology as a Business

Continuity Tool

Business continuity and IT do not always respond to business needs in tandem, it often is more of a struggle. The redundancy requirements that a business unit has for a new project can force compromises that put projects at risk. For example, an IT manager of a large private service corporation relates how just a few years ago, business leaders would be shocked at the estimates for computer systems. Senior management has “high expectations for resiliency and data redundancy and that would double or quadruple the equipment costs,” this IT manager says. Then business leaders would re-evaluate their redundancy requirements and in the end, cost concerns would win out. IT staff and resources to manage these redundancy platforms, as well as the overall impact to the complexity of the IT infrastructure itself are additional costs under-appreciated by business leaders. Too often, business continuity takes a lower priority during planning.

Most companies, according to Stewart, will purchase an in-depth risk assessment and then do nothing about it.

The redundancy requirements that a business unit has for a new project can force compromises that put projects at risk.

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Before virtualization technology existed, an organization had difficulty in meeting recovery time and system availability requirements due to the procurement of physical computer systems. Increasingly, virtualization technology is deployed within an organization and redundant computer systems can be provisioned quickly. Recently, the IT department of the U.S. State of Ohio virtualized the data centers that provide governmental social services to residents with developmental disabilities. The goal of the project was to provide employees and external users access to service applications without any downtime and the ability to scale for future growth. This project supports 80,000 Ohio residents. TechTarget reported on the project3_{and relates how the entire project took nine months of architecture} planning, and before they began building the infrastructure, disaster recovery requirements were a top priority. By leveraging the experience and expertise of internal staff and by working with a qualified third-party IT service company from the beginning, this project was completed on time and currently supports 200 virtual machines. More than 90% of the department’s servers have been virtualized, TechTarget reports. This project is an excellent example of how IT virtualization projects can work in harmony with business continuity objectives to deliver quality services.

On the other hand, having a virtual infrastructure plus a disaster recovery plan does not equal business continuity readiness. Don Stewart, quoted earlier, cautions that “business continuity” and “disaster recovery” have been blurred. Stewart explains that business continuity is the overall plan an organization has in order to maintain business operations from all departments. Disaster recovery is the plan that IT and facilities can implement to restore key services, enabling business operations. The business impact analysis, measured in economic costs of a disaster event or business disruption, is often what drives recovery time objectives, according to Stewart.

Challenges of Managing Virtualization Infrastructures

A Gartner Report4_{observed that an organization’s IT processes that have been} developed over time are generally not structured for the “speed and rapid change” that virtualization provides. The Report confirmed that many organizations have deployed virtualization technology quite extensively. The challenge is that management tools and processes have not kept up.

“More skill-sets are required to handle the complexities of a virtualized infrastructure,” says Hugh Smallwood, chief technology officer at Ongoing Operations. “SAN technology architecture, security for virtual networks, and interaction with the host server at a command-line level is required and there’s a learning curve,” Smallwood explains.

Having a virtual infrastructure plus a disaster recovery plan does not equal business continuity readiness.

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3_{http://searchservervirtualization.techtarget.com/news/1524700/Virtualization-should-start-with-disaster-recovery-says-Ohio-agency} 4_{http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/analysts/Gartner-server-virtualization-leads-to-cloud-computing.pdf}

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Maintaining Your Business Continuity Advantage

During the early days of business continuity’s development, modern leaders realized that methods had to be developed to not only protect the immense investment in computer hardware systems, but to develop procedures for

recovering these systems to a pre-disaster state. In fact, Kroll Ontrack, the leading provider in data recovery services, has seen a steady increase in the demand for recoveries from virtual systems. In 2010 the leading cause of VMware data loss failure was hardware/raid problems:

As discussed, some organizations have enhanced their business continuity plans with additional insurance protection to cover the costs of data breaches or technological failures. Other organizations extensively architect disaster recovery procedures within their projects to protect their investments. One thing is for certain, it is vitally important to include data recovery processes within a corporation’s business continuity plan. Successful organizations realize that any disruption, regardless of how small, will have an impact on the business as a whole. This has led IT leaders and business continuity planners to proactively include data recovery services in their contingency plans. Choosing a data recovery service vendor before a disaster occurs prepares the IT team for a successful survival of a business disruption.

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Choosing a data recovery service vendor before a disaster occurs prepares the IT team for a successful survival of a business disruption.

VMware

®

Data Loss

Failure Types

1

% Virtual Disk Corruption

40

% Hardware / Raid Problem

36

% Deleted Virtual Disk and/or Snapshot

10

% Format & Reinstall

13

% VMFS Metadata Corruption (figure 2)

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E0711 Copyright © 2011 Kroll Ontrack Inc. All Rights Reserved. Kroll Ontrack, Ontrack and other Kroll Ontrack brand and product names referred to herein are trademarks or registered trademarks of Kroll Ontrack Inc. and/or its parent company, Kroll Inc., in the United States and/or other countries. All other brand and product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners. For more information, call or visit us online.

800.872.2599 in the U.S. and Canada +1.952.937.5161

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An Altegrity Company

Solutions to successfully meet the requirements of business continuity.

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Kroll Ontrack, Ontrack and other Kroll Ontrack brand and product names referred to herein are trademarks or registered trademarks of Kroll Ontrack Inc. and/or its parent company, Kroll Inc., in the United States and/or other countries.

Introduction

Managing Host Storage for Virtual Environments

Evaluating the Common Precursors of

Data Loss Events

Tips on How to Improve Data Recovery

Service Success

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1_{For purposes of this article a business disruption is anything that prevents day-to-day work from being done, including power disruption, downed phone}

lines, and so forth. A data disaster occurs when data is corrupted. Hence, a data disaster is a subset of business disruption.

Introduction

Business continuity was conceived as a solution to protect mainframe computer systems and early data centers. The profession was originally called “disaster recovery” and consisted of project planning and support from equipment vendors. As the profession matured, disaster recovery planning became a subset of an organization’s business continuity plan. The business continuity plan has become the umbrella-like policy that ensures all of a business’ departments can operate successfully with minimal or limited impact during a disruptive event.1_{The disaster recovery} plan and emergency response procedures all fall under the business continuity plan. What started as a formal

procedure to protect expensive computer equipment has crossed over to protect all elements of a business organization. The advent of virtualization technology has enabled business continuity planning and execution for many

organizations. Virtualization technology is complex and requires proficiencies from IT staff and management to gain a complete return from an organization’s investment. Unfortunately, if not deployed or managed carefully, virtualization can itself create business disruptions or data disasters.

Managing Host Storage for Virtual Environments

This article examines the state of virtualization within the corporate world. Also, data recovery service providers give practical tips on virtualization to optimize (and perhaps even lower the cost of) data recovery.

Asset Identification

Asset identification and management for physical hardware systems has always been fairly straightforward. Naming conventions and identification within the virtualized environment, on the other hand, tend to be cryptic and are complicated by explosive system growth. (See Figure 1. Find the development domain controllers—if you can.)

Virtual machine identification taxonomy that is cryptic or inconsistent between physical and virtual systems often leads to human error when there is a business disruption.

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Data recovery service providers report that victims of IT disasters have little or no basic documentation of failed storage systems. Data recovery engineers suggest that if an organization were to keep a simple, current screen shot of each host server’s virtual machines it would accelerate recovery efforts to identify priority systems.

Virtualization Snapshot Management

Snapshot functionality within hypervisors was never meant to replace backup solutions; instead it is a method of preserving the virtual machine’s state and disk data at a specific point in time. For example, a routine snapshot before system maintenance should be committed to the primary virtual disk after successful maintenance procedures. (See Figure 2.)

Multiple snapshots slow down access to virtual disk data due to the fact that snapshot files contain a subset of the data stored in the primary virtual disk file. Snapshots also use up valuable disk space and if left unchecked can fill up a data-store and cripple a virtual environment. When a disaster occurs, all of the virtual disk files need to be recovered to meet recovery point objectives.

Data recovery service providers cite multiple snapshots as a hindrance to a successful recovery when virtual disk files have been deleted or if a data-store volume has been reformatted.

Snapshot functionality within hypervisors was never meant to replace backup solutions; instead it is a method of preserving the virtual machine’s state and disk data at a specific point in time.

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Business Continuity Plans Not Tested

Business continuity experts and data recovery service providers consistently report that companies are not completely testing their business continuity or disaster recovery plans. According to Don Stewart, director of professional services at Ongoing Operations, a non-profit business continuity service provider for U.S. credit unions, “many business continuity plans are not exercised fully. Recently, when testing one company’s plan, the recovery coordinator said that the first step of the action plan was to find the 500-plus page business continuity plan; he asked for time to find the plan.” Stewart reports that many organizations perform a yearly tabletop exercise of their plan but that it mostly turns into a review and updating of participant’s phone numbers. Stewart says that the only way to verify continuity and recovery plans is to conduct a real-life exercise; acting out the disaster provides insight to management on how to contain a business disruption and how long it will take to restore services (i.e., how much the disruption will cost). Stewart recommends that instead of measuring the maximum allowable outage during an exercise in days or hours it should be measured by economic numbers, that is, dollars. Once the financial impact of a disruption is determined, priorities are driven by realistic goals.

Mercy Medical Center, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, provides a success story of having a business continuity plan in place for the entire organization. They successfully put their business continuity plan into action during the Midwest floods of 2008, and according to the hospital’s website, after three weeks the hospital returned to full operations. The Wall Street Journal’s Health Blog2_{has a compelling interview about} the plan’s evacuation and recovery process.

Data recovery service providers report that organizations are doing better with business continuity planning but have observed that the choice of a data recovery service is rarely a formal part of the disaster recovery plan. If selected during the midst of a disaster, the criteria used to evaluate a data recovery service provider will be less robust than the criteria for choosing which coffee maker to install in the breakroom. Since an inexperienced or underequipped data recovery provider can make a bad situation worse, the best time to choose a provider is before a data disaster. Here are five criteria for evaluating data recovery providers:

• Identify companies that have the technology and resources to solve a wide array of data loss challenges. A data disaster may affect several platforms. For example, a disruption may affect UNIX, Linux, and Windows®_{-based systems that are all} running on one virtual server.

• Identify companies that provide data recovery solutions to fit your specific needs • Identify companies that will provide you with the information required to make

an educated purchase decision

• Identify companies that offer professional customer service whenever and wherever you need it

• Identify companies that have well documented and established procedures for maintaining the security and confidentiality of your data. Few data recovery providers have submitted themselves to and passed an IT security compliance audit. If it is critical that your data remains secure, find a company that has passed a third-party security audit.

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Evaluating the Common Precursors of Data Loss Events

Information technology staff and data recovery professionals list the following precursors as the most frequent causes of data loss:

• Human error

• Storage hardware failure

• IT disaster recovery plan that is weak or not exercised regularly • Overconfidence in a SAN storage redundancy

• Corrupted or unreadable backups or archives of missing data

Here are some comments and observations from IT professionals about the importance of the projects they are working on, the magnitude of those projects, and the impacts data disasters have.

“We’ve been in the planning stages for three months now. I can’t tell you how many scoping and business impact analyses I have done. I don’t trust any storage, SSD, Cloud, or tape, which is why my data is stored in multiple locations. I plan for failure and have a solution to protect the data.”—From an IT architect who is ready to start an e-mail migration affecting forty thousand users.

“It’s a six year business intelligence project with data aggregates in the 100TB range. There’s a lot of time being spent on creating metrics and mapping the data. The raw data is going to have thirty- to forty billion rows in a single table. There’s no room for error for the team I’m working with.”—From a retail sector business analyst.

“Nobody tests their backups; they’re either incomplete or untested. They have this sense of security with virtualized storage and don’t backup! And get this, backups are made to the same SAN that holds the original data; when the SAN goes down, everything is inaccessible and this situation delays the recovery effort.” —From a data recovery engineer.

“RAID controller failures are the biggest support calls we deal with. These types of failures are slow to identify and big on disaster. Most IT admins do not have a plan to handle these types of events until the entire system crashes. When we support these types of calls, we do not go to the backup right away. We analyze the I/O event logs to see when the problems started. Then, through a combined effort of our replication solution and portions of other backups, we selectively restore the missing data. It’s a planned recovery execution so that recovery time objectives are met. This also helps us to meet recovery point objectives that business owners have established.”—From a business continuity service provider.

These observations illustrate that as storage and data increases in size, there is an ever increasing need to prepare for business disruptions and data loss. IT projects are getting bigger, planning is taking longer, and enterprise data is closing in on the petabyte range. Backups are not providing enough coverage, and data loss events have a devastating impact on companies in competitive markets.

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Planning For and Surviving a Data Disaster

According to IDC’s worldwide tracking of external disk storage systems, total disk storage capacity shipped was over 5,100 petabytes—a 55.7 percent increase over the previous year.3_{This continued growth will require IT management to} maintain disaster recovery documentation and to exercise recovery plans regularly. This will minimize or eliminate business disruptions due to data loss within virtualized environments.

Business disruptions caused by data disasters present a challenging situation. IT staff are scrambling to get priority systems up and running while senior management worries about the larger impact to the organization and its clients. Successful organizations realize that any disruption, regardless of how small, will have an impact on the business as a whole. This has led IT leaders and business continuity planners to proactively include data recovery services in their contingency plans. Choosing a data recovery service vendor before a disaster occurs prepares the IT team for a successful survival of a business disruption.

Tips Cheat Sheet

Virtualization brings an extra layer of complexity to a host system and when data loss occurs, it is critical to select a data recovery provider experienced in recovery from virtualized systems. Below are tips on how to safely recover data from virtualized environments:

• Restore backups to a different volume. This ensures that all important files are good on the backup before possibly overwriting data on the active volume. • If there is a RAID problem, image each drive from the RAID before attempting

a rebuild. Sometimes a RAID rebuild does not work correctly and can make the problem worse. Test backups by restoring to a different location before overwriting the RAID array.

• Do not create any new files on the disk needing recovery or continue to run virtual machines until the important data is recovered. New files can overwrite the files that need recovery if restoring the backup fails. Virtual machines using snapshots and thin provisioned virtual disks that are still in use after the data loss can also overwrite files that need recovery.

• Do not run FSCK or CHKDSK or other file system repair tools on a virtual disk unless a good backup has been validated by restoring it to a different volume. These repair tools assume that there is a good backup of the data and can overwrite file pointers to make a file system consistent. If desired, these tools can be run in read-only mode to find any major corruption before repairs are made. • If one virtual disk needs recovery but others are still running from the same

volume and cannot be shut down during the recovery, clone or migrate them to another volume. If a deleted virtual disk or snapshot needs recovery, it is best to copy or clone the virtual machines instead of migrating them so they are not found as part of the deleted recovery.

• Shutdown or clone/copy any other active virtual machines on the same volume that are thin provisioned or are using snapshots. Any writing to the new blocks on the volume can overwrite recoverable data.

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3_{“Worldwide Disk Storage Systems Finishes 2010 with Double-Digit Growth on Strong Fourth Quarter Results,” IDC, March, 2011}

According to IDC’s worldwide tracking of external disk storage systems, total disk storage capacity shipped was over 5,100 petabytes—a 55.7 percent increase over the previous year.3

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XXXXX

Copyright © 2011 Kroll Ontrack Inc. All Rights Reserved. Kroll Ontrack, Ontrack and other Kroll Ontrack brand and product names referred to herein are trademarks or registered trademarks of Kroll Ontrack Inc. and/or its parent company, Kroll Inc., in the United States and/or other countries. All other brand and product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners. For more information, call or visit us online.

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Protect Your Data from Extreme Weather

Every summer, Ontrack Data Recovery engineers see the same pattern: a surge in data

recovery service requests that coincides with the start of the severe storm season.

Ontrack Data Recovery services has over 20 years in the data recovery business; and

for 20 years, the summer months have always meant high demand for recovery

services.

You can protect your data by following some simple precautions. With that said, even

the most well-protected hard drives can crash, fail, quit, click, die… you get the picture.

So we’ve also provided a few tips for how to respond when extreme weather does

damage your computer equipment.

Protecting Your Data from Severe Weather

1. Summer heat can be a significant problem as overheating can lead to drive failures

can result. Keep your computer in a cool, dry area to prevent overheating.

2. Make sure

your servers

have adequate air conditioning. Increases in computer

processor speed have resulted in more power requirements, which in turn require better

cooling - especially important during the summer months.

3. To prevent damage caused by lightning strikes, install a surge protector between the

power source and the computer’s power cable to handle any power spikes or surges.

4. Invest in some form of Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS), which uses batteries to

keep computers running during power outages. UPS systems also help manage an

orderly shutdown of the computer - unexpected shutdowns from power surge problems

can cause data loss.

5. Check protection devices regularly: At least once a year you should inspect your

power protection devices to make sure that they are functioning properly.

Responding to Data Loss Caused by Severe Weather

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2. Do not shake, disassemble or attempt to clean any hard drive or server that has been

damaged - improper handling can make recovery operations more difficult which can

lead to valuable information being lost.

3. Never attempt to dry water-damaged media by opening it or exposing it to heat - such

as that from a hairdryer. In fact, keeping a water-damaged drive damp can improve your

chances for recovery.

4. Do not use

data recovery software

to attempt recovery on a physically damaged hard

drive. Data recovery software is only designed for use on a drive that is fully functioning

mechanically.

5. Contact Ontrack Data Recovery services at

800.872.2599

for free data recovery

consultation 24/7/365. Our experts will explain options and answer any questions you

have about your damaged data storage devices.

Never assume that data is unrecoverable - no matter how extreme the damage. Ontrack

Data Recovery engineers have retrieved data from devices damaged in

Hurricane

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How to Incorporate Data Recovery into Your Server Recovery

Business Continuity Plan

Proactive Suggestions for your Disaster Plan

Disaster recovery planning is a challenging process. During the planning phases, people

naturally concentrate on tangible disasters such as fire, break-ins, and natural disasters.

Data disasters should also be considered part of your disaster recovery plan. Here are

some proactive suggestions for your disaster plan:

Documentation

A review of emergency procedures on a quarterly basis is a proactive approach to

disaster recovery. Key personnel should be up to date on all technical articles relating to

primary business systems or messaging systems. Detailed documentation should be

available in the server room area, describing individual machine configurations and

software settings. Administrative documentation should be complete with each machine.

Microsoft

®

Exchange Server Redundancy

For instance, in a business running Microsoft Exchange Message Server, is there a

secondary restore server in place to handle the restoration of the server’s Information

Store during an outage? All current versions of Exchange Server use Log Files to record

message transactions before they are committed to the Information Store database.

While ‘Circular Logging’ may assist in saving storage space, during a data disaster a

complete set of log files are critical in bringing a restored Information Store up to date

and getting your users back to their data.

Archived Data on Tape Media

Disaster recovery planning should have plans for off-site storage of backup tapes and

other media. Tape backups bring additional validation testing steps to the plan. It is good

practice to test the backups periodically. Tape rotation should be regular and consistent

and monitoring the life spans of tapes is an important process to reduce media failures.

RAID Systems

When there are

disasters involving RAID

storage systems, SAN systems, JBOD

systems, and NAS systems, disaster planning takes a different perspective. These

storage systems have redundancy architecture to prevent outages and disasters.

However, this can provide a false sense of security.

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For instance, one client had 40TB of storage space spread over 20 servers. These

systems had hardware RAID 1+0 configurations. Problems began happening on one

server when a drive would go off-line for a moment. The controller card would switch to

the mirror copy as part of the redundancy process. At some point, the first drive would

come back online. The controller card would switch back to the original drive and there

would be inconsistent data from a volume and file system perspective. After a system

power-down and restart, the storage system hardware reset. The operating system’s

automatic volume repair program started and began making repairs. This became the

cause of additional problems to the file system integrity and the critical data was no

longer available. The data had to be available immediately and

Remote Data Recovery

was the option for this client.

This case history is interesting because of the cascade of failures that happened in quick

succession. This client was processing large amounts of data from three shifts per day.

To archive that amount of changing data every night was not possible. The client had

been confident that the storage configuration was ‘bullet-proof’ due to the mirroring.

These configurations can be successful against

multiple drive failures

. In this case,

however, the drive never failed, it just went off-line. When the drive came back online,

there were file system inconsistencies. As a result, the data became unavailable when

the automatic volume repair tool started making repairs. Engineers worked throughout

the night to get the data available. In the end, the recovery was a 100% success.

Data disasters can be single-tiered; a drive fails or data is missing or multi-tiered; data

disasters are combinations of small disasters. Our understanding of these unique

circumstances is what sets us apart from other data recovery companies. With recent

issues bringing the importance of business continuity to the forefront it is essential to be

prepared. With

Ontrack Data Recovery

services as part of your disaster recovery plan

you can feel reassured knowing that when a data disaster strikes, you have the support

of over 1,400 years of combined data recovery experience along with offices, clean

rooms, engineers and employees located around the world.

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Consumer Data Recovery

Guide

Choosing the right data recovery provider can be the deciding factor in whether you will get your lost data back. Scan the Internet for ‘data recovery providers’ and you’ll find hundreds of options, but before you make a decision, ask yourself the questions below so you can select the provider that offers the highest level of professional service and overall best value.

Ontrack

®

_{Data Recovery}

Technology & Resources: Identify data recovery providers that have the resources to solve a wide variety of data loss challenges.

Data Recovery Questions Kroll Ontrack _Responses Other Provider _Responses

Does the provider heavily invest in its research and development for new storage

environments, such as flash, mobile and tablet devices? Yes Can the provider recover from all storage platforms, including: desktop, laptop, mobile device,

SSD/flash? Can they recover from all content types, such as files, digital photos and e-mails? Yes Does the provider have a local presence? This is important to ensure your data is secure and is

never being sent out of your country of residence.

Yes 18 cleanroom environments globally

Experience & Success: Identify data recovery providers that have the most experience and can prove their success.

How long has the provider been in the data recovery business? Expert providers typically have vast engineering capabilities and extensive experience in data recovery.

More than 1,400 years of combined data recovery

experience How many engineers does the provider have? Do they have a dedicated research and

development team? Your provider should have sufficient resources to handle large/small jobs and skillsets to cover all forms of data loss on all types of storage.

Over 150 data recovery engineers worldwide + dedicated R&D teams How much data has the provider successfully recovered? Providers with the most experience have

recovered vast amounts of data from all types of data loss situations.

More than 5 Petabytes of file data in just

the past year Does the provider offer a secure, online portal that allows you to view recoverable files and

track the status and progress of your data recovery from start to finish? The provider should offer transparency before, during and after your recovery.

Yes Via Ontrack®_Online™

Service & Solutions: Identify data recovery providers that provide a wide range of solutions to fit within your budget and address your specific needs.

Does the provider offer a variety of recovery options? Does it have service and/or do-it-yourself

(DIY) options to fit your budget? Yes

What is the standard turn-time for desktop and laptop data recoveries? The provider should have a range of service levels to address your unique data loss situation.

We offer standard through emergency service levels & recover data in as little

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800.872.2599 in the U.S. and Canada www.ontrackdatarecovery.com

Professional Customer Service: Identify data recovery providers that provide the support wherever and whenever you need it.

How flexible is the provider with customer service? Are you able to reach them 24/7/365 and in your native language? Expert providers offer around-the-clock service in a variety of languages.

Yes 24/7 service in 15+ languages Does the provider have a technical support team on staff to give you pre- and post-recovery

support? Expert providers keep your data for at least 30 days to assist in properly migrating it back into

your storage environment. Yes

Security & Confidentiality: Identify data recovery providers with documented procedures for maintaining the strictest security and confidentiality of your data.

Does the provider have ISO-5/Class 100 cleanroom environments? Expert providers have the best-in-class standard to safely open, repair and recover data to ensure it stays safe.

Yes 18 cleanroom environments globally Is the provider authorized to handle highly sensitive data? Do they adhere to US government

protocols? Don’t take your security for granted and hand over your personal information to just anyone. Yes Has the provider completed SAS 70 Type II Certification on their processes? They should have a

comprehensive Information/Data Security Policy in place that covers all access control, data handling

and data security protocols/standards. Yes

Does the provider always return your recovered data in an encrypted format? Ensure that your data

is secure and it doesn’t fall into the wrong hands. Yes Does the provider perform thorough employee background checks and require signed

confidentiality agreements for everyone that might come into contact with your data? It’s essential

to guarantee your security with the people handling your data. Yes Does the provider utilize strict physical security measures, such as 24/7 monitoring by security

cameras and personnel? Coupled with data safety and employee security, your provider should take

every measure to ensure your data stays secure and confidential. Yes Does the provider insist on using internal resources to perform data recovery services? Not

everyone takes your security seriously, so make sure the provider isn’t sending your data to a

third-party data recovery specialist. Yes

Trust & Confidence: Avoid the gimmicks! Identify data recovery providers you can trust by eliminating those that use questionable sales tactics.

If the provider claims “no data, no charge” – what will they charge if they recover data, but not the data that you need? Don’t fall for this questionable sales tactic and ensure that you know exactly what data you’re getting back and at what cost.

We provide a list of recoverable files before a

purchase decision Will the provider commit to quoted price ranges in writing to ensure the services fit within your

budget? Yes

Will the provider give you a listing/report of all recoverable files before you make a purchase

decision? Is this included in their evaluation service? If they don’t, walk away. Yes Will the provider offer you a free, no-obligation consultation and allow you to speak directly

with a data recovery engineer to discuss your options? Don’t be left in the lurch by not getting to

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Small-to-Medium Business

Data Recovery Guide

Ontrack

®

_{Data Recovery}

Does the provider heavily invest in its research and development for complex storage

platforms, such as SSD and virtual environments? Yes Can the provider recover from all storage platforms, including: all operating systems, server and

network storage, desktop and laptop, virtual environments and SSD/flash? Can they recover

from all content types, such as files, databases and e-mails? Yes Can the provider recover data from systems that are proprietary or unique to their clients?

Expert providers invest in technologies to develop customized or just-in-time (JIT) solutions for data

loss situations that aren’t necessarily “typical.“ Yes

development team? The provider should have sufficient resources to handle large/small jobs and the skillsets to cover all forms of data loss on all types of storage.

More than 5 Petabytes of file data in just

the past year Does the provider have a secure, online portal that allows you to view recoverable files and

track the status and progress of your data recovery from start to finish? The provider should offer transparency of your recovery before, during and after it’s completed.

Does the provider have the resources to perform emergency or on-site data recoveries? Do they provide remote data recovery services? Providers that understand their small and medium business customers know that every minute of data loss costs money, so they develop solutions to get them up and running quickly.

Yes

What is the standard turn-time for data recoveries? The provider should have a range of service levels to address your unique data loss situation.

We offer standard through emergency service levels & recover data in as little

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Yes 24/7 service in 15+ languages Does the provider have a technical support team on staff to give you pre-and post-recovery

support? Expert providers keep your data for at least 30 days to assist in properly migrating it back into

your storage environment. Yes

Yes 18 cleanroom environments globally Is the provider authorized to handle highly sensitive data? Do they adhere to US government

protocols? Don’t take your security for granted and hand over your personal information to just anyone. Yes Does the provider always return your recovered data in an encrypted format? Ensure that your data

is secure and it doesn’t fall into the wrong hands. Yes Has the provider completed SAS 70 Type II Certification on their processes? They should have a

comprehensive Information/Data Security Policy in place that covers all access control, data handling and

data security protocols/standards? Yes

Does the provider perform thorough employee background checks and require signed

cameras and personnel? Coupled with data safety and employee security, your provider should take

budget? Yes

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Enterprise Business Data

Recovery Guide

Ontrack

®

_{Data Recovery}

Does the provider heavily invest in its research and development for complex storage

platforms, such as SSD and virtual environments? Yes Can the provider recover from all storage platforms, including: all operating systems, server

and network storage, RAID, desktop and laptop, virtual environments and SSD/flash? Can they

recover from all content types, such as files, databases and e-mails? Yes Can the provider recover data from systems that are proprietary or unique to their clients?

Expert providers invest in technologies to develop customized or just-in-time (JIT) solutions for data

loss situations that aren’t necessarily “typical.“ Yes

development team? The provider should have sufficient resources to handle large/small jobs and skillsets to cover all forms of data loss on all types of storage.

More than 5 Petabytes of file data in the

just past year Does the provider offer a secure, online portal that allows you to view recoverable files and

track the status and progress of your data recovery from start to finish? The provider should offer transparency before, during and after your recovery.

Does the provider have the resources to perform emergency or on-site data recoveries? Do they provide remote data recovery services? Providers that understand their enterprise customers know that every minute of data loss costs money, so they develop solutions to get them up and running quickly.

Yes

What is the standard turn-time for data recoveries? The provider should have a range of service levels to address your unique data loss situation.

We offer standard through emergency service levels & can recover data in as

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Yes 24/7 service in 15+ languages Does the provider have a technical support team on staff to give you pre-and post-recovery

support? Expert providers keep your data for at least 30 days to assist in properly migrating it back

into your storage environment. Yes

Yes 18 cleanroom environments globally Has the provider completed SAS 70 Type II Certification on their processes? They should have a

comprehensive Information/Data Security Policy in place that covers all access control, data handling

and data security protocols/standards? Yes

Is the provider authorized to handle highly sensitive data? Do they adhere to US government

protocols? Don’t take your security for granted and hand over your personal information to just anyone. Yes Does the provider always return your recovered data in an encrypted format? Ensure that your data

is secure and it doesn’t fall into the wrong hands. Yes Does the provider perform thorough employee background checks and require signed

cameras and personnel? Coupled with data safety and employee security, the provider should take

budget? Yes

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What can Ontrack

Data Recovery

services do for you?

» Recover data from virtually

any type of data storage device—from hard drives and flash drives to servers and virtual systems

» Minimize downtime through

fast turnaround times, emergency service options and the industry’s only lab-quality remote data recovery service

» Report all recoverable files

and the condition of each file before you pay recovery fees

» Track the progress of your

recovery online through our Data Recovery Job Tracker

» Protect your valuable data

from unauthorized access through award-winning security protocols

The amount of electronic data stored by businesses, organizations

and home computer users has increased exponentially over the past

few years. Information once stored in paper file folders is now largely

stored within hard drives, servers and backup systems, which are

capable of holding massive amounts of information.

Unfortunately, storage systems fail, files can be accidentally (or

purposely) deleted and other disastrous situations causing widespread

data loss can occur. Fortunately, data can be recovered from devices

that sustain even the most extreme levels of mechanical failure and

physical damage.

Through its Ontrack® Data Recovery services, Kroll Ontrack has the

expertise and capacity to deliver fast, world-class data recovery to

clients worldwide.

For more than 20 years, Kroll Ontrack has pioneered and consistently

innovated the processes, tools and expertise needed to recover

inaccessible data. More people have trusted Ontrack Data Recovery

services to solve their data loss “disasters” than any other service

provider worldwide.

Earning this level of trust has required years of demonstrated success.

From high-profile data recovery cases that followed disasters such

as the September 11 terrorist attacks, the Space Shuttle Columbia

disaster, Hurricane Katrina, the Asian tsunami and the Chinese

earthquakes—to more common data loss scenarios like hard drive and

server crashes—Ontrack Data Recovery specialists have worked to

provide solutions that fit each client’s unique needs.

An Altegrity Company

The Critical Need for Data Recovery

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2 Technology You Need

Ontrack Data Recovery engineers are able to recover lost or corrupted

data from virtually ANY operating system or storage device using

hundreds of proprietary tools and techniques.

Through continued investment in R&D and long-standing relationships

with leading data storage manufacturers, Kroll Ontrack is able to stay

ahead of the curve to guarantee that its solutions are compatible with

the latest storage media.

Committing to continuous innovation allows our experts to provide

data recovery services that other providers cannot match. Kroll Ontrack

developers were the first to provide data recovery on VMware® virtual

systems and have the ability to customize recovery tools for proprietary

systems and databases.

Service You Trust

Utilizing the industry’s largest team of highly knowledgeable data

recovery specialists, Kroll Ontrack provides world-class support before,

during and after the data recovery process. With more global facilities

than any other service provider, Kroll Ontrack is uniquely equipped to

handle any type of data recovery job.

“Having the right data at the right time is critical to patient care... AHA Solutions selected Kroll Ontrack’s data recovery services for their extensive technological experience, capacity to quickly perform large-scale and emergency data recovery jobs and exceptional customer service.”

Tim Steffl Vice President

Corporate Development American Hospital Association (AHA Solutions)

The Ontrack Data Recovery Online Job Tracker allows clients to track the progress of their data recovery job from start to finish in real-time.

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3 Your computer systems operate on a 24/7/365 basis. Our experts do the

same—available to address critical data recovery needs anytime and

anywhere. You can select the recovery method that offers the fastest,

most cost-effective path to restoring normal operations.

Using Ontrack Verifile data reports, clients discover exactly which

files can be recovered before committing to recovery fees. Customers

may also access the Ontrack Data Recovery Online Job Tracker, which

provides real-time updates on the status of a recovery job. These tools

provide a key advantage over other data recovery services, as other

services rarely provide this level of transparency into their clients’

recovery results.

Security You Depend On

Regulations such as HIPAA and Sarbanes-Oxley are vital concerns for

compliance directors and data security managers. Kroll Ontrack takes

customer privacy and data security very seriously and has designed

procedures to ensure your critical data is protected at every step of

the recovery. Kroll Ontrack is the only data recovery provider to be

recognized by the U.S. Department of Defense through its James S.

Cogswell Award for outstanding industrial security.

Many of our customers utilize encryption technology to protect their

data from falling into the wrong hands. While encryption adds some

complexity to data recovery, Ontrack Data Recovery experts are trained

and equipped to recover your encrypted data.

Using Verifile Data Reports, clients can see exactly which of their files are recoverable before committing to data recovery fees.

“We lost a RAID 5 drive on one of our main graphics systems. Because we had no current backup of the work that was on the drives, we were faced with the possibility of losing customer confidence because of tight deadlines. [Kroll] Ontrack was a dream to work with and very responsive to all of my needs. Of the 256 gigs recovered, over 99% were good files. If we had to redo the current work on the drives, our cost would’ve been upwards of $100,000.” Roy Davidson Davidson & Company

“Today, very few companies offer both first class customer service and products. [Kroll] Ontrack recovered all of the data from a damaged drive I sent them and it was done in a timely manner with excellent communication throughout the whole process.” Burt Boudreaux

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Data Recovery Service Options

Remote Services

Data recovery performed remotely through a secure modem or

Internet connection.

In-Lab Services

Data recovery performed in a secure cleanroom laboratory—designed for

opening hard drives and other devices without risk of contamination.

On-Site Services

Data recovery services performed at your location by Ontrack Data

Recovery engineers for the most critical and sensitive data loss situations.

Custom Solutions

For your proprietary systems, our R&D team will work with your developers

or IT staff to create customized recovery tools to extract your lost data.

Customer Programs

Corporate Advantage Program

A free program offering businesses discounts, accelerated recovery

service and simplified procurement.

Service Partner/Reseller Program

IT service providers can offer world-class data recovery services to their

customers through our Service Partner Program.

Do-It-Yourself Recovery Tools

Ontrack EasyRecovery Software

This software is one of the leading do-it-yourself tools for recovering

lost, deleted or inaccessible files from a functioning hard drive. A simple,

intuitive interface and hundreds of supported file types make Ontrack

EasyRecovery a useful and cost-effective option for retrieving lost data.

KrollOntrackDataRecoveryWP111411PR

Copyright © 2011 Kroll Ontrack Inc. All Rights Reserved. Kroll Ontrack, Ontrack and other Kroll Ontrack brand and product names referred to herein are trademarks or registered trademarks of Kroll Ontrack Inc. and/or its parent company, Kroll Inc., in the United States and/or other countries. All other brand and product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners. For more information, call or visit us online.

800.872.2599 in the U.S. and Canada www.ontrackpowercontrols.com

About Kroll Ontrack

Kroll Ontrack provides technology-driven services and software to help recover, search, analyze and produce data efficiently and cost-effectively.

In addition to its award-winning suite of software, Kroll Ontrack provides data recovery, electronic discovery, data erasing and computer forensics services. Kroll Ontrack is a technology services division of Kroll Inc., the global risk consulting company.

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Ontrack

®

Data Recovery

Quick Reference Guide

Through its Ontrack Data Recovery services, Kroll Ontrack offers industry-leading solutions to recover data from virtually any type of data storage device. Utilizing a suite of proprietary recovery tools and the largest, most experienced data recovery engineering team in the world, Kroll Ontrack is uniquely equipped to solve even the most extreme data loss scenario.

Ontrack Data Recovery offers:

»

Free consultation and 24/7/365 customer service

»

Recovery for virtually any system including servers, RAID and VMware®

»

Remote, on-site or cleanroom lab services

»

Complete listing of recoverable files provided before you pay

»

Online tracking of your recovery

»

Locations in more than 20 countries worldwide

What to do if you suspect data loss:

»

Turn off computer immediately – further operation may damage data beyond repair

»

Do not attempt to operate any visibly damaged devices

»

Do not shake, disassemble or attempt to clean any hard drive or server that has been damaged

»

Do not dry out water-damaged drives or equipment

»

If computer is fire damaged, do not try to remove the hard drive – ship entire computer for recovery

»

Restore backups to a different volume - do not restore to the volume that experienced the data loss

»

If there is a RAID problem, test the backup by restoring it to a different location or image each drive from the RAID before attempting a rebuild

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Data Recovery Service Options

Remote Services

Data recovery performed remotely through an Internet connection. This service performs lab-quality recovery right on your server, laptop or desktop bringing the data back online in a fraction of the time it takes to restore from a backup. Remote Services are available when hardware is functioning normally.

In-Lab Services

Data recovery performed in a secure cleanroom and lab designed for opening hard drives and other devices without risk of contamination. In-lab services are offered in any situation in which the hardware is physically failing or damaged.

On-Site Services

Data recovery performed at your location by Ontrack Data Recovery engineers for the most critical and sensitive data loss situations.

Custom Solutions

Data recovery for your proprietary and/or highly complex systems. Our R&D team works with your developers or IT staff to create customized recovery tools to extract your lost data.

P0811 Copyright © 2011 Kroll Ontrack Inc. All Rights Reserved. Kroll Ontrack, Ontrack and other Kroll Ontrack brand and product names referred to herein are trademarks or registered trademarks of Kroll Ontrack Inc. and/or its parent company, Kroll Inc., in the United States and/or other countries. All other brand and product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners. For more information, call or visit us online.