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GPA01Disaster Recovery Planning for Dynamics GP

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Béat Bucher, Business AnalystForensic Technology, Montreal, Quebec

Experience- Over 10 years of GP experience- GP System Administrator, newly converted IT-Guy to Finance BI-Geek- Modules: Project Accounting, Canadian Payroll, Inventory, POP, Management Reporter, ManufacturingFun Facts- Website/Blog: http://dyngpbeat.wordpress.com/- Remember that the past does not equal the future… always look ahead. Think out of the box and remember there is always another way of doing things.

GPUG All Star – Béat Bucher

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Béat looking at the RC helicopter Pam just handed him out… #IfErrolCanDoIt

“Should we try it out right now ?“

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Beat’s Background as an former IT person

• GP Security overhauled after joiningcompany

• Project Accounting reporting • Excel refreshable reports• SharePoint Dashboards

• Maintenance jobs for SQL• Not just the GP server,

but most SQL Servers of the company

• Rewrote the DR plan for GP andTested it (YES !!)

Text goes here

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The State of Global Disaster Recovery Preparedness

ANNUAL REPORT 2014

The Disaster Recovery Preparedness Council publishes this annual report to provide an overview of the current state of disaster recovery preparedness for organizations worldwide.

It contains the results of a ground-breaking online survey along with recommendations for improving disaster recovery preparedness based on best practices.

Report can be found at www.drbenchmark.org

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Some Statistics about DR preparedness

2%

9%

16%

22%

51%

DR readiness

A B C D F

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What the numbers are telling ?

• Launched in July 2014, benchmark survey results demonstrate an enormous shortfall in DR preparedness of companies worldwide.

• Using a common grading system from A (the best) to F (the worst) 73% of survey participants or nearly 3 out of 4 companies worldwide are failing in terms of DR readiness, scoring ratings of either a D or F grade.

• Only 27% scored an A, B or C passing grade, with the remaining 73% of respondents at risk.

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Most common causes for disasters

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What this all costs to most organizations ?

• • More than one-third (36%)of organizations lost one or more critical applications, VMs, or critical data files for hours at a time over the past year, while nearly one in five companies have lost one or more critical applications over a period of days.

• • Even more alarming, one in four respondents said that they had lost most or all of a datacenter for hours or even days!

• • Reported losses from outages ranged from a few thousand dollars to millions of dollars with nearly 20% indicating losses of more than $50,000 to over $5 million.

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The shady Truth!!!

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In a Summary !

• • More than 60% of those who took the survey do not have a fully documented DR plan and another 40% admitted that the DR plan they currently have did not prove very useful when it was called on to respond to their worst disaster recovery event or scenario.

• • One third of all organizations participating in the survey test their DR plans only once or twice a year and fully 23% or one in four never test their DR plans. Without testing and verification of DR plans, most companies have no idea as to whether they can fully recover their IT systems in the event of a disaster or an extended outage.

• • When companies do test their DR plans, the results are most disturbing. More than 65% do not pass their own tests!

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Do you have a DR Plan ?

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What does this mean to your GP server ?

• Does your server host only GP or any other 3rd party apps ?

• Do you have a running IIS / Web application on the server ?

• Is your server also used as shared remote location for other files?

• Your DR strategy will depend on your infrastructure (box vs. VM)

• Most of the points will apply to all configuration type

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What to look for ?

• SQL Server databases backup

• Dynamics GP Application backup

• SQL Server security backup

• SQL Server settings backup

• Shared folders backup (GP Data, OLE Notes, etc.)

• Setup repository backup (all your patches, customizations, etc.)

• Reporting services and BI related stuff (SSRS and Excel reports)

• Bussiness Portal SharePoint DB backup

• And more…

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Your GP Databases and Application

• Create scheduled maintenance plans on your SQL server to backup :• System DB’s (system, master, model, temp)• Dynamics DB• Company DB’s

• Backup on network or tape your SQL backups (.bak) files

• Make sure your GP application folder is backed up daily by the network / tape backup utility

• Keep at least 5-7 backup generation on the server (for ER cases)

• Anytime you do some changes to forms or reports, export the customization and keep it in a central place that is backed up too

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Don’t forget your SQL server Security

• Use Microsoft article KB878449 (latest rev. 19) to capture all the user logins and passwords into a file for scripting.

• Use directions from this article to test your DR plan towards a new SQL / GP server

• Use a free utility to ZIP or ARC your GP program folder and date it (i.e. YYYY-MM-DD_DynGP_prog_bkp.zip)

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Move your backups out of Here !!!

• Taking backups for months isn’t of much help if they are stored in a drawer of your office in case the building burns down…

• Use the cloud to backup your vital data (i.e. Acronis bkp)

• Have the luxury of Virtualized systems ? Schedule daily snapshots and move them off to another data-center

• Another failover option is to use SQL replication to sync DB’s with a remote server.

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Test your DR strategy

• Wouldn’t that be nice if Backup / Restore could be that easy ?

• Test the restore of your backup!

• Follow KB878449 to assist you

• Read the fine-print

• DYNSA user must be owner of all GP related Databases (EXEC sp_changedbowner 'DYNSA')

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Document It!

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Conclusion

1. It’s not about the Backup. It’s about the RECOVERY !

2. Needs to be affordable.

3. If you are still using tapes as your primary media. STOP.

4. Don’t forget offsite components in your planning.

5. Are you backing up everything you need and is it recoverable?

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Conclusion (continued)

6. Does your backup/recovery plan include a strategy in the event of a down server?

7. Retention Issues

8. Is once a day enough?

9. Backed up data needs to be secure (encryption).

10.Who is Responsible and a few questions to ask yourself.

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Disaster Recovery planning doesn’t stop here !

• Your server DR plan is just one small part of the whole picture.

• Master your part and you can sleep at night !

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Q&A Time

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Other Sessions to Attend

• Today Room 230• Today 3:30 pm

Wisdom While You Walk: GP Admins

• Room 229 • Today 3:30 pm

Wisdom While You Walk: IT Professional

• Room 229• Today 4:30 pm

Maximizing SQL Server Performance with Microsoft

Dynamics GP

• Room 229 • Thursday 3:15 pm

Setting Up and Maintaining Test Systems & Why They're Important

• Room 230• Friday 3:30 pm

GPUG Summit Debrief for IT Professionals

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Thank You For Attending!

Still have questions ? Send me your questions by e-mail or follow me on the GPUG Collaborate site and Twitter

E-mail beat.bucher@ultra-ft.comTwitter @GP_BeatBlog http://dyngpbeat.wordpress.com/