Executing Your Disaster Recovery Test Plan: What Really Matters
Backup Central, Monday, January 27th, 2025
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.
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!