Server failure can lead to disastrous data loss which may paralyze businesses. Many users put their faith in the advanced array system and neglect the importance of keeping a regular backup. Although the fault tolerance function and rebuild function has been greatly improved during the recent years, data disaster can still happen.
Possible Causes of Server Failure and Data Loss
Logical Level Causes
1. Operational human errors are one of the main causes of server failure. Accidental deletion, formatting, or partitioning can happen during daily server operation.
2. Virus infection or security attacks (DDoS, for example).
3. Network devices in off-line state due to connection problems, causing loss of array volume.
4. Rebuild error due to power outage
5. Network configuration or setting error
Hardware Level Causes
SAS or SCIS devices in the array are physically failing. For example, malfunctioning motor or read/write head. You may experience something like:
1. Drives making clicking sound
2. Drives cannot be recognized by system
3. Drive disks not spinning when power is on
Ways to Reduce System Downtime Impact
1. Hard drive disks are the main storage medium for server data. HDDs offer large storage capacity but they are fragile and delicate. We recommend utilizing Hardware RAID arrays. It mirrors data over one or more disks so that if one disk fails the others will take over immediately.
2. Server clustering spreads the server components over several physical machines, meaning there is no single point of failure.
3. Regularly backup important files. You can use a business-oriented cloud service or professional local backup software.
4. If it is human operational errors, you can use some data recovery software to help you recover lost data, preferably on the slave drive.
5. Before removing drives, label the drives with their original position and RAID array. Remove static electricity before you touch any hard drives.
The stake of losing server data is high. Taking precautions and acting properly after the data disaster can help you minimize the risks.
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