October 21, 2017 at 11:08 am
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Tell the Judge You Have No Backup
October 21, 2017 at 3:50 pm
I am so happy you posted this. I have been thinking about the restore process and the best way to verify everything is ok with the restore. I can’t put it online, for testing.
Yes this sounds like I am an idiot, and I will take the hit
I am NOT a db admin but a developer that is very interested in making my SQL projects function better in the real world, this is why I am a member of your newsletter which I truly enjoy
The only thing I can come up with is a series of queries on each; but since data has changed I can’t always expect same results.
I do this for all of the people that have joined and fear asking questions
October 21, 2017 at 10:13 pm
Believe it or not, there are companies of all categories - small, medium, and large - that do not perform routine backups! I have run into them in my daily work routine. When I reported this "oops" to the appropriate personnel, they usually just shrugged their shoulders. The majority of the "no backup" bunch is in the small to medium size company. I can understand to a degree. These folks don't have large IT Departments. Most only have one to four people. BUT, even with that small number, someone needs to grab that "data monster" by the horns and do the backups. In lots of cases, they will have to do some educating of themselves on what the various backups are. Then, once you get them running decently, find some location (a place on some system within the organization) to restore your backup or some part of it. This will take some planning, but it needs to be done. Further down the road it will be necessary to backup, restore, and compare for correctness.
Back to this issue - I find it highly unlikely that NYPD has NO reliable data backup in place. Then, beyond that, a good Disaster Recovery Plan, which will include a system backup. It is possible that in an organization the size of NYPD that the ball got dropped, lost, hardware failure, you name name it. However, that is doubtful, especially after 9/11. Surely, after 9/11 and Hurricane Sandy they don't do regular backups, rotate them off-site, and make this backup part of a Disaster Recover Plan. However, if they are lacking in this area, hopefully, they will get a swift kick in the pants and get with the process. Ready? 1, 2, 3,... backup and go!
October 23, 2017 at 7:50 am
Considering that property seizure and challenges to seizure are so controversial (look it up if you're curious), I suspect that the NYPD has really no desire to make that information readily available.
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-- FORTRAN manual for Xerox Computers --
October 23, 2017 at 12:42 pm
What a joke. We seriously need to reform the way government at all levels does procurement and hires contractors.
... The system, the Property and Evidence Tracking System (PETS), was built on top of SAP’s enterprise resource planning software platform and IBM’s DB2 database by Capgemini in 2012, and was used as a flagship case study by the company. PETS replaced the long-established paper-based evidence logging system used by the department, and was supposed to revolutionize evidence and property tracking. It was even submitted for the 2012 Computerworld Honors, an awards program honoring ‘those who use Information Technology to benefit society.’ ...
"Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the wise. Instead, seek what they sought." - Matsuo Basho
October 23, 2017 at 3:16 pm
jay-h - Monday, October 23, 2017 7:50 AMConsidering that property seizure and challenges to seizure are so controversial (look it up if you're curious), I suspect that the NYPD has really no desire to make that information readily available.
Well said - I had the EXACT same reaction. I'd "lose" the backups too if even a fraction of the controversy is accurate.
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Your lack of planning does not constitute an emergency on my part...unless you're my manager...or a director and above...or a really loud-spoken end-user..All right - what was my emergency again?
October 24, 2017 at 11:18 am
I guess I could see a scenario where an inexperienced person running large but badly-written analytical queries over the production database would cause locks/slowdowns/crashes in an application. And once it happened, it can't possibly be allowed to happen again. And if they don't have a spare set of hardware laying around to restore to...
But even then, as legal excuses go, it's very flimsy and quite frightening. A problem easily fixed by so many people. What, even, is the point of them adding data to a system if they don't think they can retrieve it later? I'm all for databases, but it seems like it'd be a lot less costly to write the information down on paper and dispose of it in the data receptacle under their desk.
And as Jay-H mentions, it's more than convenient that the data they don't have access to is data they don't want to release.
Leonard
Madison, WI
October 25, 2017 at 6:13 pm
Make backups, make sure you can restore them, and make sure that system runs often
That's all very well as far as it goes. From a defensive point of view, it's omitted the only thingd that matter:-
Make sure that you have irrefutable evidence
(i) that the backups have happened,
(ii) that they have been tested and shown to work
(iii) and have not had your consent for their deletion.
Otherwise you risk carrying the can for there being no backups, and hence for any scams that the absence if backus might have concealed.
Tom
October 25, 2017 at 9:37 pm
bcollinsjr - Saturday, October 21, 2017 10:13 PMBelieve it or not, there are companies of all categories - small, medium, and large - that do not perform routine backups! I have run into them in my daily work routine. When I reported this "oops" to the appropriate personnel, they usually just shrugged their shoulders. The majority of the "no backup" bunch is in the small to medium size company. I can understand to a degree. These folks don't have large IT Departments. Most only have one to four people. BUT, even with that small number, someone needs to grab that "data monster" by the horns and do the backups. In lots of cases, they will have to do some educating of themselves on what the various backups are. Then, once you get them running decently, find some location (a place on some system within the organization) to restore your backup or some part of it. This will take some planning, but it needs to be done. Further down the road it will be necessary to backup, restore, and compare for correctness.
Back to this issue - I find it highly unlikely that NYPD has NO reliable data backup in place. Then, beyond that, a good Disaster Recovery Plan, which will include a system backup. It is possible that in an organization the size of NYPD that the ball got dropped, lost, hardware failure, you name name it. However, that is doubtful, especially after 9/11. Surely, after 9/11 and Hurricane Sandy they don't do regular backups, rotate them off-site, and make this backup part of a Disaster Recover Plan. However, if they are lacking in this area, hopefully, they will get a swift kick in the pants and get with the process. Ready? 1, 2, 3,... backup and go!
I certainly should have read over this before posting it! The statement starting "Surely, after 9/11 and Hurricane Sandy..." should have read "Surely after 9/11 and Hurricane Sandy they do regular backups, rotate them off-site, and make this backup part of a Disaster Recovery Plan."
For the life of me, I cannot imagine NYPD not having viable backups (double negative, but I believe you get the idea.). I know backups are a pain to do and keep up with, but they have saved my rear more times than one. I am sure most folks on here are in the same boat.
It would be nice if someone from NYPD would actually give us a "yes" or "no" on this.
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