Chapter 11 - Business Continuity and Computer Support Flashcards
1.6, 6.7
CompTIA Troubleshooting Methodology
- Identify the problem
- Research knowledge base/Internet
- Establish a theory of probable cause
- Test the theory to determine the cause
- Establish a plan of action to resolve the problem
- Implement the solution or escalate as necessary
- Verify full system functionality
- Document findings/lessons learned
Identify the Problem
- Gather Information
- Duplicate the problem, if possible
- Question users/ Identify symptoms
- Determine if anything has changed
- Approach multiple problems individually
Research Knowledge Base
- Pull from the experience of those who have come before you
Establish and Test Theories
- Question the obvious
- Consider multiple approaches
- Test the theory
Establish a Plan of Action
- Decide if you will repair, replace, or ignore the problem
- Identify the potential side effects of your plan
Implement The Solution
- want to cause as little disruption to the systems in place and their users as possible
Verify Full System Functionality
- verify the system as a whole continues to function properly
- Prevent the recurrence of an issue
- User education, by changing a process, or by using an alternate software or equipment provider
Document Findings
- Document the symptoms, your actions, your outcomes, and any lessons learned
- Knowledge bases evolve and grow over time as issues are experienced
Business Continuity
a proactive approach to ensure that essential business functions persist during and after any unforeseen events
Fault Tolerance
the ability of a system to continue operation without interruption even when one or more of its components fail
Redundancy
the duplication of critical components of functions to increase reliability and prevent system failure. It ensures that backup options are available in case of primary component’s malfunction
- avoiding a single point of failure in a network’s configuration, you are ensuring that a network is redundant
Failover
the automatic process where, in the event of a failure, the system switches to a redundant or standby system
Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS)
a device designed to provide immediate and uninterrupted emergency power to connected equipment when the main power source is lost
- Seamless Transition
Generator
a device that transforms mechanical energy, often derived from fuel sources like diesel or gas, into electrical energy
- long-term solution
Data Replication
the process of copying data from one location to another, ensuring that both locations maintain the same up-to-date information
Redundant
Array of Independent Disks (RAID)
a technology used to combine multiple hard drives into a single unit to improve data reliability, performance, or both
Disaster Recovery
is the administrative function of protecting people and resources while restoring a failed network or device as quickly as possible
- Data Restoration
- Data Prioritization
- Restoring Access
Data Restoration
- three common methods to storing data
- Locally stored data
- Network attached storage
- Cloud stored data
Data Prioritization
the idea that an organization’s IT environment creates data through many different channels, thus it is important to create a hierarchy of data to ensure the most valuable data is backed up before all else.
- Data center environment (Computer room and server room)
- Hardware (networks, servers, desktop, and wireless device)
- Software (email, Office Productivity Application)
- Data (Clients’ data, Employee Files, Accessibility
RAID O (Striping)
splits and disperses data across hard drives for improved performance
RAID 1 (Mirroring)
Duplicates Data across hard drives
- It uses mirroring to provide some protection and sometimes increases data speed.
RAID 5 (Striping with Parity)
Splits data across hard drives, while utilizing parity to detect errors and rebuild damaged files
- It provides increased performance and can survive the loss of a member disk.
- Requires at least three 3 disks (2 for data and 1 for parity).
Full Backup
creates and stores a copy of all data
Daily Backup
Only creates a backup of data changed within a 24-hour period.
Differential Backup
Only creates a backup of data that has changed since the last backupI
Incremental Backup
Only creates a copy of, and stores what has changed since any type of previous backup.
Power surge
temporary but gradual sudden increase in of voltage on a power line
Power Spike
very short pulses of energy on a power line that contain very high voltages
Blackout
completes loss of power
Brownout
reduced amount of power
Contingency Plan
key when implementing business continuity
Network Redundancy
For a server to work, it must be connected to the other computers on the network. There are two main ways to provide fault tolerance for a server:
- Install multiple NICs in the server. If one card fails, the others take over.
- Allow multiple paths between the server and the computers on the network.
Site Redundancy
provides a complete duplicate of the computers and data at a location away from the main computer systems.
- The main site and the redundant site are connected by high-speed data lines
that allow the data created at the main site to be duplicated at the remote site in real- or near-real time.
Power Redundancy
Computers need a constant supply of electricity to work. To protect against data or service loss from power outages, it’s important to have redundant power.
- If power is coming in from the wall, the computer uses that
power. However, if the power from the wall shuts off, the computer immediately switches to battery
power.
Bare Metal Backup
backs up the entire computer including
the operating system without requiring software to be reinstalled.
Full disk image
System backups begin by capturing a full image of a disk at a certain point in
time.
Incremental Backups
To capture the files that do change, include only files that have been added or modified since the last backup.
System restoration
If a system fails, users can restore system files by using the last full backup and then all incremental backups since that point in time.
Full backups
backup all data at specific points in time.
Differential backups
include only the data that has changed since the last full backup.
Transaction log backups
allow administrators to restore a database to a particular moment in time by rolling back transactions and preserving database integrity.
Replication
is a mirror copy of the database saved on a separate host.
- When a transaction is made to the database, it is saved to the master and the replica.
Read-only copies
a database are made through snapshots.
- Read-only backups are often used when the data in the database no longer needs to be updated.
- These can be used to store data
for historical purposes or to recover from a serious error where other transaction rollbacks have failed.
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)
integrates business operations and manages the flow of data between various departments.
- It does not focus on mitigating vulnerabilities in systems that support critical workflow and resources.
Business Impact Analysis
identifies critical business functions that need to be performed during disasters and other times of disrupted operations.
Striping
is the process of storing consecutive segments of data across different storage devices; it enables better throughput and performance.
Parity
is a calculated value that’s used to restore data from the other drives if one of the drives in the set fails.
