An Enterprise Backup Solution for GOES Operations Ground Equipment (OGE) and Space Support Ground System (SSGS)

NOAA's National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service (NESDIS) provides timely access to global environmental data from satellites and other sources to promote, protect, and enhance the Nation's economy, security, environment, and quality of life.  The Office of Systems Development (OSD) Ground Systems Division (GSD) intends to provide an enterprise-wide backup system for all GOES I-M and GOES NOP Operations Ground Equipment (OGE) and Space Support Ground System (SSGS) components. The components that constitute the OGE and SSGS include the Sensor Processing System (SPS), Replacement Product Monitor (RPM), Consolidated Analysis Workstations (CAWS), Orbit and Attitude Tracking System (OATS), Database Servers, Domain Controllers, GOES I-M and GOES NOP Telemetry and Command System (GIMTACS/GTACS), GOES N-P Telemetry Acquisition and Command Transmission System (NTACTS), and Multiuse Data Link (MDL) Receive System and Server (MRS&S). The objective of the GOES Backup System (GBS) is to provide a backup and restore capability of individual files, and to provide Disaster Recovery (DR) including bare-metal recovery of GOES ground system components.  The GBS is developed to protect NOAA critical assets with the ability to back up, restore, and recover mission-critical data associated with operational GOES ground system components.

The GBS provides the capability for system administrators to schedule automated system backup from a centralized location.  System administrators will be able to perform remote backup and restore of data for all operational ground system components; execute pre-determined automated backup of complete systems, data and applications; perform short-term online data backups (not to exceed 60 days) on a Storage Area Network (SAN) for faster data retrieval followed by offline data migration to tapes for long-term archival; and back up and restore simultaneously from multiple servers using online backup.

This paper describes the design, development, testing, and deployment of an enterprise backup solution to provide back and recovery of GOES ground system components at Wallops/Fairbanks Command and Data Acquisition Station (WCDAS/FCDAS), Wallops Backup Unit (WBU), and NOAA Satellite Operations Facility (NSOF). GBS units have been deployed at the aforementioned NOAA facilities and are in the process of transitioning to operations.