Let’s talk about executing your disaster recovery test plan. After decades in the backup and recovery world, I’ve seen plenty of DR tests succeed and fail – and honestly, the failures often teach us more than the successes.
This blog post summarizes the main points of my latest podcast episode. If you’d like, you can listen to it or watch it at https://www.backupwrapup.com/)
Getting Your DR Test Off the Ground
First things first: you need to pick the right time for executing your disaster recovery test plan. Weekends are usually best since you’re not competing with regular business operations. Make sure you’ve got all your key people available and focused on the test – this isn’t something you want to squeeze in between other tasks.
Setting Up Your Test Environment
When executing your disaster recovery test plan, you need a proper test environment. These days, that usually means cloud resources. Whatever you do, don’t follow the example of our friend from Alaska who ended up testing his DR system by accidentally destroying his production environment!
Communication is Critical
During the test, you need multiple ways to communicate. A central “war room” video call works great for keeping teams coordinated, but remember – you need backup communication methods too. What happens if your main communication system goes down? This is especially crucial when executing your disaster recovery test plan in a real disaster scenario.
Documentation and Dependencies
Write everything down – what works, what breaks, and especially what surprises you. Keep your DR runbook updated, and store copies outside your normal infrastructure. Remember that dependencies can bite you: authentication systems, internet connectivity, phone systems – they all matter.
Testing Beyond the Technical
A successful DR test isn’t just about restoring data or systems. You need to verify that the recovered environment actually works for its intended purpose. If you’ve recovered your call center system but the phones don’t work, you haven’t really succeeded.
Post-Test Analysis
After executing your disaster recovery test plan, measure your results against your success criteria. Don’t be too hard on yourself if everything didn’t go perfectly – that’s normal. Focus on identifying improvements and creating clear action items for fixing issues.
Building a Recovery Mindset
The real value of executing your disaster recovery test plan regularly is that it helps build a recovery mindset across your organization. When people start thinking about recovery during system design, you avoid situations like my old bank story – where we added a 100GB server with only a 2GB backup drive!
Remember: do smaller tests more frequently rather than one big annual test. The more you test, the more natural recovery thinking becomes, and the better prepared you’ll be when a real disaster strikes.
Written by W. Curtis Preston (@wcpreston), four-time O'Reilly author, and host of The Backup Wrap-up podcast. I am now the Technology Evangelist at S2|DATA, which helps companies manage their legacy data
