[cisco-voip] Reliable SFTP server for Windows to backup CCM5?

[Jonathan Charles]

The problem is simple.

It isn't an anti-linux thing.

It is a gotcha at the end of the sales process. I am not in sales, I
do design and implementations, so I don't really care, but I do care
when the customer sees some wonky process to backup their servers to.

A LOT of customers use their SANs to backup to (and then backup the
SANs to tape).

If they are already a Windows shop, they probably don't want linux
servers in their network (I have a few customers that will NOT upgrade
to CCM5 under any circumstances, because of Linux... they don't trust
it, and they are convinced, because it is open sourced, that any
security flaws are readily known).

However, I have no intention of starting an anti-Linux war. I think
Linux is a fine server-OS. I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy to
support at the desktop.

I also think CCM5 is the second best version of CallManager out there
(4.2 has Call-Forward Unregistered, and the fact that CCM5 doesn't
have it, is just embarrassing).

My only complaint is the backup process requiring SFTP (and the lack of CFUR).

So, give the customer the choice. Give them a massive warning that
there is sensitive info in the backup and threaten to kill their
children if you must, but let the customer decide what is the best
backup solution for them.


Jonathan

On 6/8/07, Robert Singleton <rsingleton at morsco.com> wrote:
> On Thu, 2007-06-07 at 15:03 -0500, Jonathan Charles wrote:
> > Umm... no.
> >
> > I am not going to tell sales that customers have to buy another server
> > just to back up CCM.
>
> Holy wars aside (and I am firmly on the Linux side in that war), ask
> your customer how much every hour of down time for the phones would cost
> them and whether $1000 or maybe less would be worth it to facilitate a
> rapid recovery, as opposed to the hours or days it might take to rebuild
> the CCM database from scratch. Chances are that they will wonder why
> it's only $1000.
>
> In our case, the powers that be have calculated that every hour that
> *our* phones are down could cost us $30,000 in potential lost sales.
> These figures were derived by taking our corporate wide gross sales for
> a year, subtracting the percentage that is known to be walk-in counter
> sales and dividing the figure that is left by 2080, the number of
> workday hours in a year. Personally, I think that figure would be a less
> then that because that formula assumes that 100% of all sales that are
> not walk-in counter sales are by phone. What it also doesn't include is
> that 700 calls a day is by our credit and collections department (which
> are not new sales, but still affect the bottom line) and 300 calls are
> IT/MIS calls that, while not contributing directly to the bottom line,
> are none the less critical to supporting those entities that do.
>
> For backup, we use BARS on CCM 4.1.3(sr4d) writing to a Samba share on a
> Linux server. The CCM servers are in a colo and the backup server is at
> corporate, connected via DS3. The tar files are about 2.5GB. Nightly,
> the Samba server is backed up to an Exabyte tape drive, along with the
> executives' PCs and other Windows machines that don't really have a
> smarter way to backup.
>
> As for Linux, once CCM 6.X has a version or two under it's belt, we will
> switch then we will officially have *nothing* mission critical running
> on Microsoft. That's not to say we'll have no Windows PCs, just none
> that will hurt the company when they go a little nuts.
>
> Robert
>
>