A tier-3 disaster-recovery strategy includes a recovery site with a running Tivoli® Storage Manager server. Critical data is vaulted electronically from the production site to the recovery site. Disaster recovery manager is also used for offsite vaulting of non-critical data.
Electronic vaulting moves critical data offsite faster and more frequently than traditional courier methods. Recovery time is reduced because critical data is already stored at the recovery site. The potential for lost or misplaced data is also reduced. However, because the recovery site runs continuously, a tier 3 strategy is relatively more expensive than a tier 1 or a tier 2 strategy.
Critical data can include database backups, infrastructure setup files, and active client-backup data. To vault data electronically, consider using Tivoli Storage Manager virtual volumes over a TCP/IP connection. Data is stored as archive files on the server at the recovery site.
As shown in the following figure, the recovery site is physically separated from the production site. Often, the recovery site is a second data center that is operated by the same organization or by a storage service provider. If a disaster occurs at the primary site, storage media with the non-critical data are transported from the offsite storage facility to the recovery site.
If you implement a tier 3 strategy, you can use Tivoli Storage Manager server-to-server communications for enterprise configuration of the Tivoli Storage Manager servers and command routing.