Be
Prepared for Disaster
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by Aaron West
Disasters will happen. That's inevitable. They've
happened to E-Bay, E-Trade,
Priceline.com, and
just about every other site out there. They will probably
happen to you.
How bad will your disaster hurt? If you're not
prepared, it will be lethal. Depending on the nature of the
site, you could lose your site, and will definitely lose traffic.
If you are prepared, your disaster will hurt a little, but
you'll know how worse it could have been had you not been
prepared.
Unfortunately, not even Nostradamus
can predict the exact date or nature of the event. It could
be a problem with your web host, your own computer, or it
could be a hack, or a simple mistake. All of the above have
happened to me, and I'm sure all of the above will happen
again. I keep my eyes open, and fear the day disaster will
strike again.
I take plenty of preventive measures, and I
urge you to do the same. They might save days worth of work,
and will definitely save your ass.
- Backup, Backup, Backup - Keep a backup of everything,
and put it in as many places as possible. Keep a local
(updated) copy of your site at all times. Back your site
up regularly either on disk or CD. Keep your old backups.
I recommend backing your site up once a week or every
time you update it.
- Make sure there are plenty feedback links available.
Encourage your users to mail you. If you don't, they won't.
If something doesn't work they will usually leave. If
they leave, you won't know there's a problem, and others
will leave as well. Try to check your mail on a semi-regular
basis. Pay close attention to any problems, and try to
fix them as they come along.
- Back up your site before you make any major change in
layout or function. Trust me, you'll mess it up sometime.
- Have a back up plan in place if your server goes down.
Can you mirror the site elsewhere? If not, check out other
hosts. If anything happens with your current host, pack
your bags.
- Make a list of what would have to be done in the event
of a re-upload. What scripts would have to be reconfigured
or chmodded? What paths would have to change?
- Keep an eye on your traffic. Make sure your host can
handle it. If it starts slowing down, start packing your
bags.
When it happens, just stay calm and fix it.
If the site will be down for an extended period of time, the
first thing you should do is put up a placeholder saying that
the site is under repair. Granted, you will lose visitors
with such an action. But those visitors might come back. They
won't come back if your site is torn apart and unusable.
Once the disaster has been fixed, take a break.
Once you've regained your composure, back everything up again.
