If the shit hits the fan with your server...
 

What are the best things to have in place...

For example, a hard drive goes down... Or somebody hacks your box... Or something else...

What are all of the things I can do to make sure that if the shit does hit the fan, I can get things up and running smoothly as quickly as possible?

What do you have in place?

Replication, load balancing, etc. :2 cents:

If you read enough threads you will clearly see that the majority seem to uses the prayer method for both server and personal computer.

:1orglaugh:1orglaugh:1orglaugh:1orglaugh

Soooo true. :1orglaugh:1orglaugh:1orglaugh

1st off you better have a good host that knows what they are doing and keeps your box up to date.
2nd thing is at least have a raid1 (mirror) server
and
3rd have a local copy and a backup of it.

So true indeed....

I recently tried to restore a backup of my hard drive only to find it didn't work... I used powerquest driveimage. Piece of shit.

Best answer so far, thanks!

How do I tell if my host is keeping my box up to date?

The version numbers on things like MySQL are old version numbers (but if I remember right, they told me they don't apply new versions of stuff because it can break scripts etc) but they said they DO apply security patches etc...

How do I check?

Hire a decent server admin, and he should know what to do.

Keeping a mirror server is still a good idea.

hi cheekycherry,

The amount of redundancy you have really depends on how much you can afford.

First as already said you should have a quality host, quality hardware and it should have RAID running. You should run local backups as well as having your host run backups.

Regarding hiring an admin, few people can afford to hire a full time admin and lets be honest, you hire one guy and the time you need him the most he is going to be in the middle of something else or you wont be able to contact him or worse he is drunk and you can contact him. The best thing to do is get a Fully Managed Host, let their admins take care of things. There are several Managed hosting providers that post on GFY. You should find one that is fully staffed not a one man operation, that's the same as hiring one admin.

There are also managed hosting companies like RackCo that operate from multiple data centers, have redundant NOCs, can provide complete disaster recovery down to even office space, phone and PC. We can run a backup system that goes live the instant your other server has issues and we can even run the backups to another location. There are a lot of options of what can be done and the cost is really a pretty big spread depending on what you would need.

Hit me up and I would be happy to see what we could provide you that works with your budget.

Good Luck

Hosting with one of the top adult companies, ie. Phatservers, Natnet, Techiemedia, Yellowfiber, Isprime, etc. will keep you covered pretty much.. They all know what they are doing and have qualified techs.

I got all three do I get a prize ? :)

To check you would pretty much need to be an admin and if that were the case you would not have posted this thread.

What they told you is true, if a host just updates every time there is an update without working with you odds are good your code will break and things will be messed up. Security patches and things should always be done.

The relationship you have with your host really should be one that you can ask and expect honest answers.

secondary disc and put backup files there
+ backups to tape or sth

ahah that one usually works. sometimes it's a bit instable though

First I'm a big believer in RAID setups AND keeping your own local backups plus backups provided by your host. RAID alone for me is not enough nor should be.

Second I would say get a fully managed server and develop a good relationship with your host. When I have questions I contact my host (webair) and they help me out, offer advice, etc.

My next goal is getting a nice load balanced setup going! woo hoo!! Good luck with everything mate!

sad but true :1orglaugh:1orglaugh

Redundant is they keyword here..

Just put up a second server which replicates your first.. If the first one goes down your second one takes over..

I wouldn't have a clue how to do this.

Sounds good BUT i'm lazy as fuck and much rather reply on Google Cache for backing up my website :) Thanks anyways! :2 cents:

Thanks for all the replies so far guys!

Good stuff.

SNEAKERNET. That's where you call someone in the NOC to go walk back and fix the fucking thing, since you have a full backup on another server.