Disaster Recover Guidelines

Disclaimer: Each customer site should have a Disaster Recovery Plan in place and this plan should be tested on a semi-yearly interval to ensure data can be recovered in case of a disaster.  This guide should augment disaster recovery practices that are in place at the customer site and is not meant to be a blueprint for a full Disaster Recovery Plan.  It is meant to give you pointers of what to add to your Disaster Recovery Plan.

Document for Disaster Recovery and Employee Turnover

  1. Server Names and IPs that are running New World ERP
  2. Printer list, Drivers, and IPs for the printers that are installed to the Application Server for New World ERP
  3. Accounts/Passwords
  1. SQL User to connect to the database server
  2. Domain or Local Server user and password that is running the New World ERP App Server service on the Application Server

Database Server Backup Needs

The databases for New World ERP, eSuite, HR_Reporting, NWERPConfiguration and DSS from the database server are backed up to the database server by the SQL maintenance plans.  These plans are set up on the Systems Assurance trip and maintained by the customer post systems assurance.  However, these databases should also be written to offsite storage, via Backup Exec or other programs to ensure data can be recovered in case of server loss or natural disaster.

To find the location of the database backups, please open up Microsoft SQL Server on the database hosting machine.  Expand the Server Name on the right hand side.  Expand the Maintenance menu on the left and then expand Maintenance Plans.  You should see two or more plans here (likely named something like Optimization and Transaction Log Maintenance).

Clicking into each of these plans will detail out what is in the plan.  Each plan should have a Back Up Database task included.  Right click on the task and choose ‘Edit.’  Towards the bottom of the dialog you will see where the databases are being backed up.

In this case, the files in G:\Backups should be backed up on an interval using the current backup architecture at the site.  These should be backed up to another storage location that could be reachable in the event of a disaster.

In event of disaster on the database server, the maintenance routines would have to be re-configured (a guide is available on the Customer Support Portal on My New World) and also Decision Support would have to be reinstalled (if licensed) and its scheduling jobs would have to be reconfigured.

Application Server Backup Needs

On the Application Server, the report output files (otherwise known as File Storage) should be backed up on an interval as well.  These are found in the Document Output Path directory from the New World ERP Management Console.  This could either be a UNC path to another server, a local path to another drive or a static location on the server.  In the below example, “c:\Program Files (x86)\New World Systems\Logos.Net\FileStorage\Documents\” should be backed up.

Custom files reside in {Installation Drive}\Program Files (x86)\Tyler Technologies\NWERP\{Instance Name}\Custom.  This directory should be backed up as well.

In the event of Application Server failure, New World ERP would need to be reinstalled on the new Application Server machine.  The Tyler Deploy installation guides, located on Help Central, would help with this task.  The Application Server portion of eSuite would have to be reinstalled (if licensed) following the eSuite Services Install Guide on Help Central.

eSuite Server Backup Needs

eSuite in itself can be recovered if the eSuite database is recoverable in event of a disaster.  This topic is covered in the Database Server portion of this guide.  From the needs of backup on the eSuite server, the following files should be taken into account.

  1. If eSuite has been customized for a different look, keep a copy of the custom CSS file that was created to not have to rework this customization.
  2. If eSuite has been secured with an SSL certificate, make sure that this certificate is backed up or a copy of it can be received from the vendor that provided the certificate.  This certificate would have to be reapplied in event of a disaster on the eSuite server.

In the event of failure on the eSuite server, the eSuite websites would need to be reinstalled following the eSuite Websites Install Guide on Help Central.

Can Tyler help me with this topic?

Yes, Tyler Technologies offers several technical services including hosting and disaster recovery.  Please see your account rep for more information if you are interested.