OnePacs Forums

Hi,
What you recommend as a disaster recovery plan in case the gateway computer has a hardware failure. Is there any specific data on the computer that should be backed up? What would be the expected turn around time to get a new gateway set up?

Thanks

The data on the Gateway generally doesn't need to be backed up because it is all immediately forwarded to the OnePacs cloud where it is securely stored and backed up. Of course, if you are using your gateway as the primary DICOM archive then you would need to back up your data. In most environments the Gateway only serves as a DICOM router and thus the data is only transient and doesn't need to be backed up.

There are various ways to address a complete hardware failure on the Gateway PC. We recommend using a computer with a redundant power supply and NIC, a UPS, and hard disks in RAID-1 configuration to reduce the likelihood of a complete failure. Many customers opt out of those recommendations due to cost. Even with the best hardware, a failure is a possibility, so one or more of the following strategies should be considered.

1) Redundancy - You can achieve hardware redundancy through virtualization (installing the gateway on a virtual machine that can be quickly run on different hardware) or by having a warm backup gateway server that can be utilized in the event of a failure.
2) Temporary replacement PC - The gateway software is freely available and can be downloaded through the web interface. This allows anyone with the appropriate permissions the ability to install the gateway on a different PC in the event of an emergency. This can be done by your IT staff or OnePacs Support remotely. Note that the most difficult of this type of failure is generally the networking changes. It is necessary to either assign the replacement PC the same static local IP address as the failed gateway PC OR reconfigure the modalities and/or PACS to send to a new IP address.
3) Online study uploader - In the case of a hardware failure the online study uploader can be used to manually upload cases to OnePacs. https://onepacshelp.com/display/ON/Uploading+Studies

The right solution depends on the resources and IT skills present at the site and the terms of the SLA with the customer.