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The Ultimate DR Plan

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I know the world is full of DR plans and DR advice, but this is honestly the last DR plan you’ll ever need. I’m not sure what made me think of it, but it popped into my mind on the way home the other day.

We all have web content. Some of us only blog, some of us run websites and blog, etc. And some of us have our stuff hosted while others host our own, while yet others do a combination of both. Personally, mine is kind of a mixed bad. I used to host my own content but my home pipe couldn’t handle it anymore so I had to push it to a host. I still control my own DNS though.

So here’s what hit me the other day. What’s going to happen to my content when I die? I have 2 major websites and a couple blogs, and currently I’m the only one with login info to any of them. Well, I suppose you could say who cares what happens to my content once I’m dead. After all, I’m dead. But we plan for all kinds of things upon our death, so why not this? Do you really want all the content you spent years churning out to just go away for lack of payment on your host? Sure, there won’t be any new content by you, but you can try to ensure that someone carries on your site and at least keeps it running. Oh, I know it’s not the biggest thing you have to worry about, but at some point you should at least consider it.

My initial thought was I have Jen to fall back on. She’s my DR plan. But what if we bite it together? We’re on a roadtrip somewhere and some drunk driver wipes us both out. Then she’s not there to back me up that’s for sure. So what happens to MidnightDBA.com and ITBookworm.com? I really want them to kind of carry on for as long as they can. Maybe whoever takes it over will get a community of DBAs to pick up the slack and continue posting.

Look, I know this is morbid, but you guys deserve it.

One thought is to get someone from the community whom I trust to pick up the sites and keep them alive as long as they can (or like). That would only really entail giving them my admin accts and periodic source code. That part’s easy. But then it dawned on me. How would anybody know we weren’t around anymore? We live out here in Dallas and as far as anybody knows if we don’t show up to the user group for a couple months we’re just busy. If we don’t go to any sqlsats for a while we just can’t get away. If we don’t answer emails or tweets maybe we’re just offline trying to simplify our lives. And the same goes for not answering the phone. The point here is that we really don’t have anyone who would be there to tell the community (or even our good friends) that something happened to us. Jim (Jen’s brother) might eventually think of it, but it wouldn’t be his first thought. Who knows how long it would take him to get on that.

And a lot of us are in that same boat. There are plenty of people in SQL that I almost never see or hear from so how would I find out they were dead? Maybe they don’t have a spouse who’s close to the community and wouldn’t think to inform anyone. And as far as we know they just fell into working really hard and aren’t showing up for any of the normal stuff.

So anyway, I don’t have all the details worked out yet, but I’m going to be slowly putting something together and trying to cover a few of the bigger bases. Because I don’t want my sites to just die when I do. I kinda want people to get something out of them until the content ages out.

So what are your thoughts on the matter?

5 thoughts on “The Ultimate DR Plan”

  1. You should have posted this for a Morbid Monday.
    I don’t know what will happen to my stuff when I croak. I pay for my hosting a year up front, take frequent backups and know how to move it. Maybe a backup site stuck on a free wordpress blog would take care of that?

  2. There’s a site for releasing info when you die – kinda morbid but useful I guess. http://www.deadmansswitch.net/

    I can’t vouch for their service as I’m not signed up, but that’s probably the kind of thing you’re looking for. If there’s a backup of all the important stuff in a password protected zip file with code and credentials hosted at a predefined location & the dead mans switch site can email the zip password to somebody after an untimely demise.

  3. How about a “deadman” switch to your main site? No post/login by you in XX days, and an automatic notification goes out to the “heirs”. In the Air Force, we used a similar feature to prevent the airborne command post from assuming control of the ICBMs (if we on the ground were incapacitated, then they could gain control and launch). Talk about morbid, but them’s the facts!

  4. Here’s the best plan for this that I’ve heard to date: as part of your will (and if you’re going to go to this extent, you probably already have one of these), name your beneficiary and leave a key to a safe deposit box with all the details that person would need to keep the site going. The executor has an obligation to contact named beneficiaries in a will, so the heir to the website wouldn’t have to worry about setting up a McCown Monitor to make sure you guys are still alive; this person gets the alert should you reach an unfortunate demise. Furthermore, you can have a chain in your will: Jen, if she’s still alive; Worthy Candidate #2, if not; and so on down the line.

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