Xtium Guide for Successful Disaster Recovery Testing

8/13/2019 Xtium Guide for Successful Disaster Recovery Testing

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Xtium, Inc. 2013. All rights reserved.

Preparing for

Tips and FAQs for

Successful Disaster

Recovery Tests


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A good disaster recovery plan is like

insurance.


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You

youll never have

to use it.

HOPE


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But what happens if


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?


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orWORSE?


7/18Xtium, Inc. 2013. All rights reserved.

A full disaster recovery plan will ensure youremployees can stay connected, accessing their

work-related data through remote computers,smartphones and other personal devices.



But its not enough to just create the plan.

You must put it to the test.



Here are the most

frequently asked

questions (as well as tips)about disaster recovery

tests

so you can be prepared

for the worst.



Q

A

What is a disaster recovery test?

A DR test is a process to evaluate the procedures

an organization has in place for ensuring business

continuity in the event of a major service

interruption or catastrophic event.

Q Why is disaster recovery testing important tomy organization?

A

Disaster recovery testing gives you the ability to

assess and correct your procedures before an

actual disaster forces your organization to use

them. When performed on a regular basis, DR tests

are a critical component of a sound business

continuity strategy.

Tests allow Xtium

and its customers to

ensure the integrity

of protected data as

well as execute and

refine processes for

making that data

available in the

event of a declared

disaster.



Q

A

How often should I do a disaster recovery test?

Typically, DR tests are performed once per year,

but some organizations require multiple tests each

year. We see this in the case of highly regulated

industries such as financial services or other

businesses in which the frequency of testing ismandated by regulatory compliance guidelines.

QWhen do you do disaster recovery tests?

A

DR tests are performed around your organizations

schedule. This is to ensure that the appropriate

personnel are available to participate in the test

and assist in creating a DR run book. Consider

annual testing a starting point for your company.

Xtium asks that tests

be scheduled as far

in advance of the

requested date as

possible, requiring

at least two weeks

notice in order to

ensure the proper

test resources are

aligned.

Xtium recommends

DR testing after any

major event, such as

changing office

locations, opening a

new office, major

architectural or

infrastructure

upgrades, or

mergers and

acquisitions.



Q

A

What is a run book and why is it critical to a

DR test?

A disaster recovery run book is a working

document unique to every organization that

outlines the steps the company needs to take to

recover from a disaster. Run books, or updates torun books, are the outputs of every DR test.

A run book includes a prioritization sequence of

events for a successful recovery of business

services, applications and infrastructure

components.

It also contains a list of critical contacts that can be

reached in the event of a disaster. These include

the IT department heads, leads for specific

applications, administrators of particular systems,

and the managed service provider, among others.

We find that email is

usually the first

application on the

recovery list,enabling employee

communication in

case of a disaster. In

close second are

core business

applications such as

accounting apps,investor relation

apps, and CRM or

ERP systems, among

others.



Q

A

What kind of downtime should I expect

during a disaster recovery test?

None. Tests are performed in an isolated

environment in parallel to production. The two

systems don't cross-communicate, so production

systems won't be aff

ected during a test.

Q Can I cheat on my DR test?

A

While it would certainly be possible to submit

fabricated results, why would you? In the event of a

true disaster, youll want to ensure that your tests

have vetted and documented all of the correct

steps and procedures for recovery.

Xtium strongly

advises against

actively failing over

productionsystems for testing

purposes due to

the risk of

compromising data

while in a test

state.

The benefits of

correctly going

through the DR

testing process

regularly are

mutually beneficial

for both your

company and Xtium

as your provider.



Q

A

How should I prepare for a disaster

recovery test?

First establish your DR team. Members should

include the head of the technology department (i.e.

CIO, CTO or Director of IT), leads and/or powerusers of specific applications (i.e. email, business

apps, etc.), administrators of particular systems,

and other third-party IT providers you may use.

Identify which infrastructure components,

applications and business services your test willinclude. And dont forget to set success and failure

criteria. Remember, a test is meant to show you

where the plan has holes, so dont be afraid to

have it fail!

As your service

provider, Xtium is

also part of your DR

test team.



Q

A

Walk me through the steps of a typical

DR test.

Each test will be a little different, so here is a

framework level overview:

1. Declare a mock disaster.2. Execute a communication plan.3. Identify order of restoration of failed systems.4. Execute run book restoration procedures.5. Validate recovery and data integrity.6. Communicate results.7. Conclude test and return to normal operating

procedures.

Make sure that each

of your tests

contains these steps,

and that thesupporting activities

are reviewed once

the test is

completed.



Q

A

What are RPO and RTO and why do they

matter?

RPO (Recovery Point Objective) is the point in time

from which your data is restored. Typical RPOs

range from one hour to 24 hours, depending onthe sensitivity of the data and the business service

that data supports. The more real-time the service,

the lower the RPO and vice versa.

RTO (Recovery Time Objective) is the amount of

time it takes to recover your systems in the eventof a disaster. This is the amount of downtime that is

acceptable before there is a significant impact to

business operations. The same principle that holds

true for RPO also supports RTO targets.

Both RTO and RPO

are affected by the

amount of data that

is protected/replicated and the

change rate of that

data. When change

rates are lower,

RPOs can be a lot

shorter. The greater

the rate of change,the longer a backup

can run.



Q

A

How do you know if a disaster recovery test was

a success?

There are three constants that suggest success

across all testing scenarios:

1. Ability to meet your assigned RTOs and RPOs.2. Successfully restoring your data and systemconnectivity.3. Processing business transactions in a DR/test

environment.

QWhat do you do with the results of a DR test?

A

Test results go into the organizations DR run book

with a list of any known issues or workarounds to

be performed to the systems upon restoration.

Each organization

can and should set

their own success

criteria for thesuccess of DR

tests.

DR run books are

the go-to documents

in the event of a

major service

interruption or

catastrophic event.


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Need help testing your DR plan?

Xtium can assist.

Numerous systems are involved inthe daily operation of Independence

Capital Partners and our goal is toprotect those systems and data while

providing a recovery mechanism.

Xtium has enabled us to simplify ourDR testing process and be prepared

in the event of a system failure or truedisaster.

- George Scheffey, CIO

Contact us for more

information

[email protected]

www.xtium.com800-707-9116

Documents

Xtium Guide for Successful Disaster Recovery Testing