Table of Contents
Overview
DR testing is as crucial to recovery as backing up. If backups or replicas have not been validated, they might as well not exist since it is unknown whether they will operate correctly or not. This article outlines how a typical DR test with CyberFortress functions, including responsibilities for key tasks during the test.
Testing Expectations
Disaster recovery can be broken down into three main tiers, depending on the complexity of the restore:
- Tier I: Workloads are restorable
- Tier II: Restored data and applications are valid
- Tier III: Networking is replicated and functional, and stress testing is performed
At CyberFortress, we encourage customers to test all three tiers of recoverability and document all settings and configurations made during a test. While performing a test with CyberFortress, the customer should expect to encounter and work through unexpected issues. This is by design to ensure that the same issues do not delay service restoration during an actual disaster.
During a DR test, the following is expected to occur:
- Network segments are deployed based on the production environment configuration
- Mission-critical servers and services restored to the DR environment
- Recovered servers sandboxed from the public internet
- Remote access granted to the DR environment through the web console and/or client-based VPN
A DR environment is not designed to be any of the following:
- An exact simulation or rebuild of the customer's production hardware
- Used for full production purposes
Testing Responsibilities
The following responsibilities are handled by CyberFortress during the test:
- Validation of backup files
- Scheduling of relevant meetings
- Creation of a virtual data center for a DR environment
- Creation of network segments in the virtual data center
- Recovery of workloads into the DR environment
- Configuring firewall rules for client-site VPN access
The following responsibilities lie with the customer during the test:
- Determining which workloads are mission-critical and should be tested
- Providing encryption keys for backup chains, as needed
- Determining which employees should access the DR environment
- Determining what the test should entail
- Configuring inter-server and inter-network firewall rules
- Troubleshooting application and access issues for workloads
- Performing testing on recovered workloads
- Documenting configurations created over the course of the test
- Documenting changes made over the course of the test
- Implementing changes to production systems to ensure smoother recovery during future tests and disasters
The following items are considered out of scope for CyberFortress engineers and must be handled by the customer:
- Configuring any changes inside the customer VM
- Configuring firewall and NAT rules
- Configuring the site-to-site VPN
- Troubleshooting application and VM functionality