Disaster recovery testing exercises are an essential part of your disaster recovery strategy. Once you’ve created your disaster recovery plan, you need to ensure that it works as intended and covers all the scenarios you need it to. This testing is not a “one and done” process, however, as changing technology, teams, and regulatory requirements make at least annual testing a necessity to ensure you can still rely on your DR plan if the worst happens.
This article will cover why regular failover and recovery testing is key to the success of your recovery strategy and some of the different testing methods you can use.
The need for disaster recovery testing
Your disaster recovery plans should be tested regularly - yearly at minimum, although it may be necessary to test more often depending on multiple factors. Having disaster recovery plans in place isn’t enough, you need to be confident that they will be effective in the case of a real disaster scenario and also prove this fact to regulators.
Overview of disaster recovery testing
IT disaster recovery testing covers several possible processes that can be used to determine whether a disaster recovery plan covers everything that it needs to, is up to date, and can be used effectively in a real scenario. How often you should test your disaster recovery plan will depend on a number of factors but it should be at least once a year.
The consequences of inadequate DR testing
So why is it important to test a disaster recovery plan? Without regular, effective disaster recovery testing, you open your organization up to a number of risks:
- If you don’t test the plan when you first create it, you cannot be sure that it is effective and will enable you to meet recovery time objectives (RTOs) and recovery point objectives (RPOs)
- The disaster recovery plans you originally created may not be up to date in terms of the scenarios they need to cover or the technology you use
- Even if your plans are all in order and up to date, recovery may be slowed if people aren’t familiar with their specific role or how to kick off proceedings. Regular testing keeps the procedure fresh in everyone’s minds.
- You cannot prove to regulators that you are prepared for a disaster and, if a real disaster does happen, you will need to be able to prove that you took every precaution to be prepared.
Reasons to perform disaster recovery testing at least yearly
What are good reasons to perform a yearly disaster recovery testing process? Below are some good reasons to perform regular DR testing.
1.Understanding if you can meet RTOs and RPOs
When you set your RTOs and RPOs, you need to be confident you can actually meet them in a real-world scenario. IT DR testing will help you measure your recovery time actuals to determine whether those goals are realistic for you to meet - that way you can determine what adjustments you may need to make to the plan and your process to meet those goals - or if the goals may be unrealistic.
2.Technology and infrastructure changes
As your tech stack changes, your disaster recovery plan will have to change to reflect it. For example, new applications will need their own disaster recovery plans, while changing infrastructure such as moving to the cloud will lead to different risks and requirements. As part of your testing, you can determine where the changes and gaps are and adjust accordingly.
3.Practice how you play and ensure everyone is up to speed
A key factor for disaster recovery execution success is the whole team understanding their roles and responsibilities so that the recovery can be carried out as efficiently as possible. Regular testing exercises will help all stakeholders understand all aspects of the plan, from where to find the most up-to-date plan for a particular scenario to what actions they need to take and when.
4.Changing regulatory requirements and regulatory reporting
Changing regulatory requirements may cause you to rethink your recovery processes and goals. You may also need to prove to regulators that you can recover in the time you say you can. This is where good testing protocols are essential so you can prove to regulators that you have effective strategies in place.
5.Varying disaster scenarios
As technology evolves, so too do potential threats and disaster scenarios. You may need to update your recovery plans or create new ones to meet these changing threats. Part of your disaster recovery testing process should include evaluating your existing plans and their validity and utility - and ascertaining where there are gaps for relevant threat vectors.
6.Implementing continuous improvement
Only by running through and testing your plan can you pinpoint areas that need to be improved, such as through automation, integrations, or a more efficient critical path.
Planning and executing disaster recovery tests
Your disaster recovery testing strategy may vary depending on the approach that works best for your organization. Here are some different types of disaster recovery tests you can use:
1.Plan review
All stakeholders involved in the development and implementation of the DRP review the plan closely to see if there are any inconsistencies, mistakes, bottlenecks, or other elements that could cause problems. This approach can work as a first step but probably isn’t sufficient to understand whether a plan will work well in practice. It is a good idea to carry out this process to ascertain whether there are any disaster scenarios or technologies that are not covered.
2.Tabletop exercise
A tabletop exercise involves all stakeholders running through the plan step by step so they each know what their responsibilities are. This helps to ensure that everyone involved understands what actions they need to take and when and helps them become familiar with the plan but doesn’t take into account the technical aspect of the recovery and may not encompass or expose possible problems or risks on that level.
3.Simulation test
A simulation test involves actually trying out a number of crisis situations to see if the team can respond with the plan they have, then analyzing the results and implementing learnings. For example, this could involve actually performing a data center failover to prove that the recovery process is actionable.
By using automated tools for your IT disaster recovery testing, such as automated runbooks, you can test like you’re responding to a real incident. This gives you an advantage because you aren’t typically given notice of a real incident, and unannounced testing tests both the process and the response of your people in a realistic way.
Best practices for regular disaster recovery testing
The ideal state for IT disaster recovery is practicing how you play - being able to perform a disaster recovery test with little to no notice just as you would have to in a real scenario. This means knowing that your plans are all up to date, in a centralized, executable format, and that all relevant stakeholders understand their roles and responsibilities.
Using the right disaster recovery testing software, such as Cutover’s automated runbooks, will help you get to a place where more than annual IT disaster recovery testing is achievable.