Verifying your disaster recovery plan
One of the most-ignored activities in disaster recovery is the need to ensure that the plan can actually be used. A good disaster recovery plan should include periodic verification of backup data and failover/failback tests of the replica system. If any systems are not being backed up or replicated, verifications need to be made to ensure that the organization can actually operate without them. If any special activities are required that are not immediately obvious, such as how to failover to the replica site, they need to be fully documented and made available to multiple individuals.
What follows are some simple items that should be included on a disaster recovery checklist:
- Backups are periodically restored and tested.
- Replica failovers are periodically tested.
- The strategy for what, when, and how backups and replicas occur are periodically checked to ensure that they are still relevant.
- Staff are aware of and trained on the organizational procedures...
