Server Recovery

For someone not familiar with the functions of a server, it might simply be a mystical computer that performs incredible tasks and generally is a hands-off system. But it is not so. What makes the term server doubly confusing is that it can refer to both hardware and software.
From a hardware perspective, it is a computer on your network that is configured to share its resources or run applications. It is used to handle database sharing between all users on your network. From a software perspective, it can be used to describe a specific software package running on a computer or the computer on which that software is running. The type of server and the software you would use depends on the type of network. There are number of severs e.g. Application Server, Print Server, Database Server, Mail Server, Web Server, FTP Server, Proxy Server, etc.
Protecting the data is vital for protecting the business. Information is the lifeblood of any business. One cannot afford to have one’s data integrity compromised. In case of hard disk failure or the data from the server has to be recovered, RAID is of much use.
RAID (‘Redundant Array of independent or Inexpensive Disks’) technology is quickly finding its way into many home and professional systems. It promises high data security, high fault tolerance, extended up-time, integrated capacity, enhanced performance, increased speed, increased reliability, increased space, etc., With RAID several independent hard drives are combined together to form one larger logical array. Not only data is sorted on this array, but ‘redundancy’ information is also added. This information may either be the data itself (mirroring) or parity information calculated out of several data blocks (RAID 3, 4 or 5).
The operating system no longer deals with individual drives, but instead with the array. Improving accessibility is the major objective of RAID. RAIDS offers better data recovery chances as long as the drives are cloned. However, when RAID fails, it fails big time and then RAID data recovery software is used to retrieve data. Raid data recovery software recovers both RAID software and hardware. It prevents downtime in the event of a hard disk failure, but it will not recover data that has been deleted by the user or destroyed by a major event, such as theft or fire. Because of this you still need a backup to secure your system from these problems even if you install a RAID system.
The advantages of RAID technology were in the first instance only featured on expensive server systems, but with subsequent massive growth in data-intensive enterprise, increasing demand has resulted in a wider and more affordable range of RAID technologies. This popularity has resulted many different solutions being generated, each suitable to different user profiles. The relative suitability of RAID technologies depends largely on the individual’s particular application needs, cost and complexity of the system must also be factored in.
There are various RAID levels. RAID level 0 for which has high performance, but as such no redundant information is stored. It is the largest, as all its disk space is used, which means it has a high risk of data loss. The failure of any disk in the array results in data loss due to a lack of redundancy. RAID 1 is faster in reading and slower in writing. It is highly reliable for data protection, as data is stored by duplicating to two disks. But it has lower capacity. RAID 2 (stripped array) has additional data protection measures. It uses Error Checking and Correction Method (ECC), which offers little advantage beyond that of RAID 3, so it is rarely used. RAID 3 is slow in writing. Practical use of RAID 3 calls for hardware based control. RAID 4 comes with single dedicated parity drive and striped data drives. Both RAID 3 and 4 have good data recovery performance and affordability. RAID 5 is popular due to its combined advantages over other levels. It has good writing efficiency, data protection is still optimal, cost is also good compared to other levels. Though RAID 6 is not so popular, like RAID 5, it is also preferred by a few clients. RAID 10 is the most basic hybrid-level, combining the features of RAID 1 and RAID 0. it is very popular due to its comparatively simple implementation with high performance and super redundancy.