IPitomy Blog

IPitomy Disaster Recovery

Introduction
The IPitomy 'Pure IP-PBX' is a state of the art system which boasts a robust open standards platform that has an array of the latest business telephony applications. With regular software and application development, we keep our product on the cutting edge of technology. This means that the typical IPitomy customer is sure to have the system for years to come since technology is not going to pass them by. However, like any electronic device, failures are inevitable. At some point in the future wether it is 5 years or 10, something is likely to fail, the most common component failure being the hard drive. IPitomy offers many solutions to ensure that you do not suffer a lengthy communications outage. I want to address these solutions in this article.

Disaster Recovery and Redundancy

Disaster recovery and redundancy are elusive targets. There are many things to consider and many facets to the cause and solution. The primary reason for having a Disaster recovery Plan is business continuity. Avoiding any down time and loss of communications with employees or customers is the goal. There are varying degrees of disaster from losing the ability to make calls during a minor hardware failure to a complete weather disaster resulting in the inability to occupy your building.

Hardware Failure - Hardware failure can occur anywhere in the cabling, PBX, data switches and Routers, just to mention a few.
Internet Outage – This occurs with less frequency but accommodations must be considered for this potential problem
PSTN Line Failures – Occasionally carriers have equipment and network failures. These can be annoying and costly to your business.
Physical Disaster – Weather, Fire, Earthquake and other major disasters can leave your business homeless. Steps can be taken to develop a plan to minimize business loss during these unfortunate events.

Not all of these contingencies can be covered for all business without some planning and decisions on how much money to spend on business continuity. What is it worth to your business to stay up and running 99% of the time without business disruption? The following is a list of options that can be implemented to assist your company in developing a disaster recovery plan that fits your budget and business continuity requirements.

Making IPitomy Database Backups
Once your system has been properly installed you can set up your IPitomy to make regular system database backups. It is recommended that you FTP it off site somewhere as well as keep a backup on site. This will give you accessibility as well as redundancy. It is also not a bad idea to keep backups going back several months in case one file is corrupted for some reason. Your backup file is relatively small and can be saved on any number of storage devices or servers so don't be shy when it comes to saving multiple files. In the event your hard drive needs to be reformatted, you can simply load your backup right back on to it and recover your system fairly quickly. This is a built in feature of your IPitomy system, so be sure to utilize it.

RAID (Redundant Arrays of Inexpensive Disks) Solution
The first formal disaster recovery solution is the RAID solution. Your IPitomy will have two hard drives installed with this purchased recovery solution. Speaking in general terms, the average life expectancy of a hard drive is around 5 years, with most failures occurring during initial burn in, and then after 5 years of constant use. The primary hard drive of your system will perform every day operation of the system as normal. The second drive is cloned by RAID software and keeps your backup hard drive ready to take over in the event that the first fails. Our RAID is hot-swappable, meaning you can remove the bad hard drive and replace it while running on your backup. Having the RAID solution presents an easy and inexpensive on site recovery option to keep your telephone network intact in the event your primary hard drive fails.

Redundant Power Supplies
Power supplies are a hardware component that can be implemented at a relatively low cost that can prevent this hardware failure. Redundant power supplies automatically keep the system up and running in case one side of the power supply fails.

Uninterruptable Power Supply
Installing an uninterruptable power supply can prevent annoying business interruptions due to short duration electrical power loss. Be sure to acquire a UPS that is capable of integrating with IPitomy. This can protect the IPitomy hardware from sudden power loss and power spikesby allowing IPitomy to gracefully shut down when the UPS is about to run out of power.

IPitomy Cloud Recovery
There are a few instances where RAID is ineffective, having a backup solution in a Cloud is a compelling recovery solution from IPitomy. In the event that your system is severely damaged or impaired where your RAID solution and redundant power supplies will not suffice, the Cloud recovery would allow your system to run even though your local system may be completely inoperable.

Depending upon the nature of the disaster, several options are available to use in the Cloud Recovery Solution. Using a mobile configuration you could still make and receive calls without your local system or local desktop phones using mobile phones. In the event that you still had an internet connection, your IPitomy phones would look to a secondary IPitomy system in the Cloud, and continue running your business until you have replaced or repaired your damaged system.
The Cloud recovery feature can be implemented different ways. The first being a maintained Cloud backup where you would be instantly routed to the Cloud when your system fails. The second would be where IPitomy can set you up in the Cloud by request in the event of a system failure. The first option is obviously the most desired since downtime is minimized. The emergency Cloud setup is also an option provided you can tolerate a bit more downtime while your database is uploaded and activated. There are also other variations of this application. The choice is up to each business owner how much money they want to dedicate to a workable disaster recovery plan. The most important thing to know is that IPitomy has your back when you need it most.

Conclusion
Disaster recovery is an important component of your telecommunications network. From a hard drive failure, a fire, flooding, a tornado, hurricane or an extended power outage; if you follow the simple steps presented in this article you will be well prepared. If you have made regular system backups, have onsite RAID, and you keep a Cloud recovery option open, you will not be caught off guard should a failure or disaster occur. IPitomy has developed several cost effective solutions that will surely keep your telecommunications network up and running so that you will stay in contact during emergencies, and not lose valuable business should an outage occur.
To learn more contact your local IPitomy dealer or you can contact IPitomy directly so that we can put you in touch with a dealer.
IPitomy Communications, LLC- 941-306-2200 or Toll Free: 1-800-IPitomy (800-474-8669)

Written by Matthew J. Bellisario 2013
IPitomy Communications

Hello again, here's a quickie ...no not that.
Here is a cool music file that works well on the latest versions of SW. (Are your systems up to date?)
This one is great for school applications used in conjunction with our
Scheduled Alerts feature: PBX Setup / Services / Scheduled Calling (all the way at the bottom).
NOTE: This feature requires a license.

First download the file to your PC. (Remember where you put it on your PC) (I don't know where you put it.)	Download file:
Now load the file to the IPitomy PBX. 1. Open your web browser and access the PBX 2. Go to PBX Setup / Edit Prompts 3. Click the Browse... button aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
Your PC's file search window will open and you must go the place where the file that you just downloaded is located... I put mine in /Libraries/Music/ringtones Find it and double click it or highlight it and then click Open ...whatever you usually do. You will now be back at the Edit Prompts window (above)... Click Upload File You now have the file loaded onto the IP PBX
Don't forget the Save Changes button!
Now Go to Destinations/Menus/Edit Menu and make a menu that will be used to combine the file that you just uploaded with a Multicast Page "Zone". You must assign a number to this menu since that is how it will be addressed in the schedule function.
Don't forget the Save Changes button!
Now Go to Destinations / Ring Groups ... Multicast Paging Groups Either click Add Group or select from those existing.
Pick a name for a new group and assign a Multicast page Address... following the rules (must be between 224.0.0.0 and 239.255.255.255) Now select the extensions that should be part of this Multicast Page Group and Click Add. Click Update Click Close Window
Now Go to PBX Setup / Services / Scheduled Calling (all the way at the bottom) 1. Select Enabled and; 2. Click Manage Calls
The Manage Calling Schedule window will open. Either Click "Add" or select an existing Schedule (as is the case in the picture - I am selecting my previously added schedule named Paul Test.
Now name the Schedule (mine is Paul Test) and select how this schedule will function: Date/Time is the date at which the schedule will become active and conclude (ie. school months as in my example) Recurrence... obviously helpful for repeat operations. Execute at... is when the broadcast will occur. (A scroll bar appears... if one of the general times isn't adequate, just type in the desired time... making sure to keep the format of data required.) In Actions select the Multicast Page that has been set up for this purpose as the Number To Call. Then input the number of the Menu that you created. (In this case it's 1901) Choose a COS (just pick an installed extension for a simple implementation) Select Enabled Click Submit.
Don't forget the Save Changes button! PRESS APPLY CHANGES!!!	This should complete the setup and begin operating during the period of dates you programmed...!