I can’t stress the importance enough of getting your bootstrap reports offsite. If you don’t have a bootstrap report available and you have to rebuild your NetWorker server, then you may potentially have to scan through a lot of media to find your most recent backup.
It’s all well and good having your bootstrap report emailed to your work email address, but what happens if whatever takes out your backup server takes out your mail server as well?
There’s two things you should therefore do with your bootstrap reports:
- Print them out and send them offsite with your media – offsite media storage companies will usually store other records for you as well, so there’s a good chance yours will, even if it is for a slightly extra fee. If you send your bootstraps offsite with your media, then in the event of a disaster recovery, a physical printout of your bootstrap report should also come back when you recall your media.
- Email them to an external, secure email address – I recommend using a free, secure mail service, such as say, Google Mail. Doing so keeps electronic copies of the bootstrap available for easy access in the event of a disaster where internet access is still achievable even if local mail isn’t possible. Of course, the password for this account should be (a) kept secure and (b) changed every time someone who knows it leaves the company.
(Hint: if for some reason you need to generate a bootstrap report outside of the regular email, always remember you can at any time run: mminfo -B).
Obviously this should be done in conjunction with local storage methods – local email, and local printouts.