Data retention and restoration
- Elizabeth Roke
Data retention responsibilities are shared by Emory University and Lyrasis (the hosting service for the ArchivesSpace application). Additional information about management of the data hosted by Lyrasis is documented in Emory’s contract agreements with them. Contract agreements are available by request to Rosalyn Metz, Chief Technology Officer for Emory Libraries and Museum.
Record name | Storage location | Responsible party | Retention period |
|---|---|---|---|
Legacy EmoryFindingAids SVN EAD files and database dumps | GitHub@Emory (OIT Instance) | LTDS system administrators | 3 years from ArchivesSpace migration project (August 2026) and will be requested by the Archival Technology program manager |
ArchivesSpace production database backups | AWS account #70, s3 bucket: archivesspace-backups | LTDS system administators (automated process with notifications sent to libsysadmin@emory.edu) | Local monthly backups acquired from Lyrasis on the first or second of the month and retained for 3 years with a rolling deletion yearly. |
ArchivesSpace production environment backup | Lyrasis hosting | Lyrasis system administrators | Daily backups retained for 1 month |
Data restoration
While every effort is made to protect and responsibly manage the data in ArchivesSpace, it may occasionally be necessary to restore data. Note that Emory University only retains data for a 3 year retention period. Data restoration procedures apply in the following scenarios:
Catastrophic loss of entire repositories
Limited loss of data due to staff overwriting errors
Analysis of data changes to individual collections/objects in case of theft or other malicious activity
In case of catastrophic loss:
The stakeholder or the Archival Technology program manager should submit an urgent ticket indicating what data is missing and the date the data loss occurred. If the stakeholder originates the ticket, the Archival Technology program manager should be notified asap.
The Archival Technology program manager will notify all stakeholders via the arch-systems-l@listserv.cc.emory.edu listserv and implement an immediate freeze on all data in both the production system and the test system.
The LTDS sysadmins will request restoration of the latest daily backup from Lyrasis into the ArchivesSpace Test system by submitting an urgent ticket to the LYRASIS Support Desk and copying the Archival Technology program manager: as@lyrasis.org
Once the backup is restored in ArchivesSpace Test, the LTDS sysadmin will notify the Archival Technology program manager who will validate the backup.
Upon validation, the LTDS sysadmin will request the backup be restored to the ArchivesSpace production environment.
The Archival Technology program manager will notify the reporting stakeholder and the listserv and release the data freeze.
In case of limited loss of data due to overwriting errors OR needed tracking for theft:
The stakeholder should submit a support ticket and notify the Archival Technology program manager.
The Archival Technology program manager will determine the backup that should be restored to ArchivesSpace Test and notify the LTDS sysadmins. The Archival Technology program manager will notify stakeholders of a freeze on data in the test system.
The LTDS sysadmins will retrieve the requested backup from AWS and submit a ticket to the Lyrasis Support Desk: as@lyrasis.org requesting that the backup be applied to ArchivesSpace Test environment.
Once the backup is restored, the LTDS sysadmin will notify the Archival Technology program manager who will validate the backup and notify the stakeholder. The stakeholder and the Archival Technology program manager will determine how long the backup should remain in place before any changes can be made in test.