Backups for employees (mail and files)

Because data is not or not usually static, it is important to develop a good backup strategy to ensure that data from the past can be retrieved in a structured manner.

Two important parameters for determining such a strategy are RPO (Recovery Point Objective) and RTO (Recovery Time Objective).

RTO, expressed in time, indicates how long it will take to replace the last backup of the data that has not yet been lost or damaged as a maximum. RTO therefore indicates how long it will take before you can use the data again. RTO is calculated from the moment LISA receives the request to restore a backup.

RPO, maximum tolerable downtime (expressed in time). The data newly produced during this timeframe will need to be generated once again.

LISA has capacity available for the saving of backups within both the standard level and the high level of storage. In both cases, LISA uses the centralized storage facilities that are accessible via Campusnet.

The level selected depends on the requirements as set out in the Classificatierichtlijn Informatie en Informatiesystemen UT In descriptions and guidelines prepared by the University Information Management Department (UIM), parameters RTO and RPO are called MTU and MTD. In the case of backups for data not falling under this guideline, the user decides how his or her data is backed up, in consultation with LISA. Only Normal Quality storage can be used.

Where research data is concerned (research data is specified in the classification guideline), there are requirements relating to backups. No RTO and/or RPO is specified. If a researcher would like LISA to make a backup of his or her research data, then he or she can contact the LISA account manager in the faculty in question.

The account manager will then consult with the researcher to determine which data is involved. The application is taken into account when deciding which backup strategy is most suitable. The selected backup strategy ultimately determines how large the required backup capacity is, and therefore also determines the cost for the backup facility.

No request needs to be made for the backup of the following data. Backup of such data is a standard service for all staff.

The costs for the backup of the data specified above, with the exception of research data, are financed centrally.

For information about the costs of backup in general, refer to the Self Service page.

Delivery times by volume V;

The backup facility can be used for data on any server connected to Campusnet. It is preferable if the server in question is managed by LISA, but this is not strictly necessary.

Under conditions to be established in consultation with LISA, the backup facilities may also be used for data stored on the hard disks of desktops, notebooks, external hard drives and USB sticks.

A backup is not the same as archiving. Archiving is the long-term storage of selected data. This service is not provided by LISA-ICT, but is the responsibility of LISA-LA (Library & Archive).

It is always possible to request the Service Desk ICT to retrieve deleted or lost data. The period within which this is possible is given under 'Backup storage time' above.

For support, use the self-service page and the manuals. If you have any further questions and in the case of malfunctions, contact the Service Desk ICT.

As part of the general ICT facilities, LISA stores various categories of data. The method used depends on the type of data involved. LISA also ensures that backups are made of the data and that, if necessary, the data can be retrieved from these backups. The method used for this also depends on the type of data. This document provides insight into the different applications.

1. EMAIL

Email for students

This is provided by Google. Is outside the influence and responsibility of LISA. The total capacity provided for storing email, files, and other apps within Google Apps is 30 GB per student.

Email for staff

Outlook service, thus including calendar, contacts.... Standard service. 3 GB + 3 GB for email archive. Linked to ICT account. OWA as well. Default format @utwente.nl.

Functional email

Outlook service, thus including calendar, contacts.... Standard service. 3 GB + 3 GB. Default format @utwente.nl. Not linked to person. To functional account. Registered with department; department of other group to which it belongs.

2. STORAGE

Storage for students

Will be provided through Google Apps. Is outside the influence and responsibility of LISA. The total capacity provided for storing files, email, and other apps within Google Apps is 30 GB per student.

Storage for staff

Local drives (C:, D: etc.) at the UT workstation. No backup is made of these local drives by LISA. It is the responsibility of the employee to do this.

To back up the data on the local drives, use can be made of one of the facilities offered by LISA in the form of centralized, shared storage facilities. And LISA does make a backup of the data on these centralized, shared storage facilities. (Therefore, if you make a backup of the data on your local storage on the centralized facility, then you actually have double security: the copy you made yourself on the centralized facility and the backup of this as created by LISA.) Each member of staff has their own storage area on the centralized facility: their own 'Home Directory', their own M:-drive.

The M: drive is intended for the storage of your own work documents. These documents are your own and cannot be shared with others. Others therefore have no access. If you work for several organizations within the UT, or you move to a different organization, this directory remains the same. The standard capacity of this storage is 10 GB and can be increased to 20 or 40 GB on request. The increase is subject to charges. Before the limit is reached, the member of staff will receive an email alert.

This M: drive is accessible from the member of staff's UT workstation. (The M: drive is also accessible by means of a web drive).

Storage for departments and other groups

On the centralized, shared storage facilities, LISA also makes storage facilities available that can be shared with others. The P: drives are made available to departments within organizations, departments and other groups to be determined. Project and organization-related data can be stored on these drives. On his P: drive the user only sees the directories of organizations, departments, companies, associations, projects or other groups that he belongs to.

The size of a P: directory for an organization, etc. is determined in consultation between the organization and LISA.

Storage at UT level

On the centralized, shared storage facilities, LISA also makes storage available that is accessible to all employees: the U: drive. On this drive, various documents are made available that are of interest for everyone at UT. An example is the UT house style with template information.

Storage for Institution systems

The data for the Institution systems (Osiris, Decos, Métis, Oracle databases, etc.) is stored by LISA on the centralized, shared storage facilities. Access to these applications and the data is controlled by its functional management.

Storage for research data

If required, LISA makes storage available for a department or an individual researcher for the purpose of storing research data. Access to this data is determined in consultation between the user and LISA. This storage capacity is made available to servers or workstations by means of an SMB share or an NFS share.

Storage: configuration qualities

At the time of this meeting, LISA has just completed or not quite yet completed the acceptance of a new storage infrastructure. In essence, this infrastructure comprises two main parts.

A: A redundant configuration, which makes use of an automatically controlled, intelligent mix of high-speed Solid State Disk, fast SAS disk and slower NL-SAS disk. (Doubly implemented = mirrored = redundant = 1 configuration in Seinhuis and 1 configuration in Teehuis). 

And B: A single configuration with use being made of a lower speed NL-SAS disk.

Storage of Configuration type A has a very high score in terms of availability and performance. But there is also a price to be paid for this (approximately 2 euros per GB per year). Besides the fact that the stored data is duplicated by default (protection from hardware failures), protection from user errors is provided with the creation of a daily backup of the data.

Storage of Configuration type B offers good but lower availability and performance. This is reflected in the price (approximately 0.40 euros per GB per year). No backup is made of the data in this configuration.

In both cases, the costs include the management by LISA.

Storage capacity is available to the staff of the UT for both Configuration type A and Configuration type B. The purpose for which the storage capacity is used determines the choice between configuration type A and type B (or a mix of both).

LISA itself uses storage capacity of Configuration type A for the (redundant) storage of the storage for members of staff, storage for departments, etc. storage at UT level, and uses storage capacity of Configuration type B for the necessary backup.

For Exchange, i.e. email for members of staff and for functional email 'appliances', LISA uses: dedicated server and storage environments, hardware and software, and data. This Exchange environment has double redundancy. Even if three systems fail, the mail environment (albeit with reduced performance) will still be available. Because of this high degree of redundancy, no backup is made.

For the Institution systems, LISA also makes use of appliances. The databases are regularly backed up on Configuration type B.

3. DISASTER RECOVERY BACKUP (AND RESTORE)

Disaster recovery backup is understood to mean a copy of the data that is located on a data carrier or within an application. Such a copy is made preventively in order to secure important data in case the data on the original carrier is deleted, lost or damaged. Because data is (usually) not static, it is important to develop a backup strategy to ensure that data from the past can be retrieved in a structured manner.

Email

Email for students

The backup of this data is performed by Google. Is outside the influence and responsibility of LISA.

Email for staff

Email data of members of staff is stored for 60 days. This retention period also applies to information in the 'Deleted Items' folder, and the data from the last 60 days also remains available if the 'Deleted Items' folder is permanently emptied with the 'Clean Up Tools – Mailbox Cleanup' function.

'Recover Deleted Items' function:
The data contained in the 'Deleted Items' folder can be restored by users with the aid of the 'Recover Deleted Items' function in Outlook under the 'Folder' tab.

Functional email

Functional email data is stored for 60 days. This retention period also applies to information in the 'Deleted Items' folder, and the data from the last 60 days also remains available if the 'Deleted Items' folder is permanently emptied with the 'Clean Up Tools – Mailbox Cleanup' function.

'Recover Deleted Items' function:
The data contained in the 'Deleted Items' folder can be restored by users of the functional mailbox with the aid of the 'Recover Deleted Items' function in Outlook under the 'Folder' tab.

Storage

Storage for students

The backup of this data is performed by Google. Is outside the influence and responsibility of LISA.

Storage for members of staff, storage for departments, other groups, and storage at UT level.

As already stated, LISA does not make a backup of the data on the local drives of the UT workstation. That is the responsibility of the users.

LISA does make a backup of the data on the M: drive, the P: drive and the U: drive. In accordance with the UT Data Storage Policy, two copies of a file are stored. This is to protect against hardware failures.

On working days, a backup is made of the user files three times a day. Every backup is stored for 28 days (20 working days). These backups can be restored by the user by means of the Previous Versions self-service function.

A snapshot is made of the complete systems every 4 hours, day and night. These snapshots are stored for 4 weeks and are only intended for emergencies when an entire server has to be restored.

In the context of the UT Data Storage Policy it is stipulated that, within the period of 28 days referred to, the maximum accepted data loss (MTD, expressed in time) is 24 hours. And the maximum time within which the restore must have occurred (MTU) is 2 * 24 hours. LISA has set the MTD to 4 hours and the MTU to 24 hours. MTU indicates how long it will take before you can use the data again. The MTD indicates the maximum amount of work you will have to repeat in order to return to the situation just before the original data was lost or damaged.

After the expiry of the period of 28 days, data that was previously deleted or lost can no longer be retrieved from the backup.

N.B.: Within the current system where 3 backups are made per day, it is possible that a file that is created and deleted between two backups, cannot be retrieved by means of the Previous Versions function.

Storage for Institution systems

LISA does not make a backup of this data. In accordance with the UT Data Storage Policy, two copies of the data are stored. This is to protect against hardware failures. In the intervening period, 'snapshots' of the data are made. This involves a copy technique that reduces the MTD. The maximum amount of work you will have to repeat since the last snapshot was made. It has been decided to create a snapshot every 4 hours.

A full backup of the databases is created every day. The backups are stored for 28 days.

In the context of the UT Data Storage Policy it is stipulated that, within the period of 28 days, the maximum accepted data loss (MTD, expressed in time) is 4 hours. And the maximum time within which the restore must have taken place (MTU) is 8 hours, unless the malfunction is due to a hardware defect (server defect). If this is the case, then the MTU is 24 hours.

N.B.: After the expiry of the period of 28 days, data that was previously deleted or lost can no longer be retrieved from the backup.

Storage for research data

In accordance with the UT Data Storage Policy, by default LISA does not make a backup of this data.

4. RESTORING INDIVIDUAL DATA

The system of backup and restore is such that it is not possible to fulfill the request of a user to restore one or more individual files or one or more individual email messages. (It is assumed that they are still present within the available backups).

A user can be assisted in the use of the 'Previous Versions' function by the LISA Service Desk.

A user can be assisted with the use of the 'Recover Deleted Items' function by the LISA Service Desk.

5. LONG-TERM BACKUP (AND RESTORE)

LISA does not provide the “Archive function” for general data as referred to in the data storage policy. Archiving = backups saved for a long period of time, for example 5 to 10 years. External suppliers such as Vancis and SURFsara offer this possibility. Service delivery is possible by LISA.