Affected systems/impact: The systems and processes that will be impacted by the change should be identified and documented.
Risk analysis: A risk analysis should be performed to assess the potential risks associated with the change. The risk level should be documented.
Change board approvals: A change board should approve the change to ensure that it is aligned with the organization's business objectives and IT policies.
End-user acceptance: End-users should be notified of the change and their acceptance should be obtained.
4.3 Implement workstation backup and recovery methods as given below
Backup and recovery
Backup and recovery are essential components of any organization's data protection strategy. Workstations contain valuable data, and losing that data can be catastrophic for any business. Therefore, it's important to have a backup and recovery plan in place for workstations. The following are different types of backup and recovery methods that can be implemented for workstations:
1. Full Backup: A full backup copies all the data on a workstation to the backup device, such as an external hard drive or cloud storage. This backup method takes the most time and requires the most storage space, but it provides the most comprehensive backup of all the data on the workstation.
2. Incremental Backup: An incremental backup only copies the data that has changed since the last backup. This method requires less storage space and takes less time than a full backup, but it requires more management and tracking of multiple backup sets.
3. Differential Backup: A differential backup copies all the data that has changed since the last full backup. This method requires less storage space and takes less time than a full backup, but more time and space than an incremental backup. It also requires less management and tracking than an incremental backup.
4. Synthetic Backup: A synthetic backup is a combination of a full backup and incremental backups. It uses the full backup as a baseline and then creates incremental backups based on that full backup. This method requires less time and storage space than a full backup and provides more comprehensive backups than an incremental backup.
Once the backup method is selected, a recovery plan needs to be in place in case of data loss. Recovery methods can include restoring files from backup, system restore, or re-imaging a workstation from a backup image. It is important to regularly test backup and recovery procedures to ensure data is recoverable in case of a data loss incident.
Backup testing
Backup testing is also an important aspect of implementing workstation backup and recovery methods. This involves regularly testing backup procedures and verifying that backups can be restored successfully. The frequency of backup testing may vary depending on the organization's requirements, but it is generally recommended to test backups at least once a month to ensure that the data can be restored in the event of a disaster or data loss.
Backup rotation schemes
The 3-2-1 backup rule is a popular backup rotation scheme that recommends keeping three copies of important data in two different storage types, with one copy kept off-site. This ensures that in the event of a disaster or data loss, there is a backup available that can be quickly restored.
The GFS backup rotation scheme is another common method that involves creating three backup sets: a daily backup (son), a weekly backup (father), and a monthly backup (grandfather). The daily backup is overwritten every day, the weekly backup is overwritten every week, and the monthly backup is overwritten every month. This ensures that multiple backup copies are available for restoration, with the monthly backup being the oldest and the daily backup being the newest.
