| name | disaster-recovery |
| description | Use when designing disaster recovery plans, implementing backup strategies, creating restore procedures, setting up failover systems, and defining RTO/RPO targets. Includes DR testing, recovery sites, and disaster recovery best practices. Based on CISSP, CDRP certifications. |
| license | MIT |
Disaster Recovery Skill — DevOps Engineer
Overview
This skill provides comprehensive guidance for designing and implementing disaster recovery plans. It covers backup strategies, restore procedures, failover systems, RTO/RPO targets, DR testing, and disaster recovery best practices following CISSP and CDRP certifications.
When to Use
Use this skill when:
- Designing disaster recovery plans
- Implementing backup strategies
- Creating restore procedures
- Setting up failover systems
- Defining RTO and RPO targets
- Testing disaster recovery plans
- Implementing backup automation
- Creating DR documentation
- Setting up DR monitoring
- Implementing backup encryption
- Creating backup retention policies
- Setting up DR testing schedules
- Implementing DR failover procedures
- Creating DR runbooks
- Setting up DR alerting
- Implementing backup verification
- Creating DR training materials
- Implementing DR compliance
- Setting up DR governance
- Creating DR cost models
- Implementing DR optimization
- Setting up DR escalation procedures
- Implementing DR communication plans
Do NOT use this skill when:
- Writing application business logic (use domain-driven skill)
- Designing database schemas (use database-design skill)
- Writing API endpoint specifications (use api-design skill)
- Performing security audits (use security-auditor skill)
- Writing SQL queries (use sql-best-practices skill)
- Designing multi-page website layouts (use design-system skill)
- Analyzing deployment configurations (use deployment skill)
- Writing documentation (use documentation-best-practices skill)
Disaster Recovery Planning
DR Planning Framework
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ DR Planning Framework │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ 1. Business Impact Analysis (BIA) │
│ - Identify critical systems │
│ - Determine RTO and RPO │
│ - Assess financial impact │
│ │
│ 2. Risk Assessment │
│ - Identify threats │
│ - Assess vulnerabilities │
│ - Determine risk level │
│ │
│ 3. Strategy Development │
│ - Choose DR strategy │
│ - Select recovery sites │
│ - Define backup strategy │
│ │
│ 4. Plan Development │
│ - Create DR procedures │
│ - Document roles and responsibilities │
│ - Develop communication plan │
│ │
│ 5. Plan Testing and Maintenance │
│ - Conduct DR tests │
│ - Review and update plan │
│ - Train personnel │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
RTO and RPO Targets
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ RTO and RPO Targets │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ RTO (Recovery Time Objective): │
│ - Time to restore service after disaster │
│ - Examples: 1 hour, 4 hours, 24 hours │
│ - Impacts: Backup frequency, DR strategy │
│ │
│ RPO (Recovery Point Objective): │
│ - Maximum acceptable data loss │
│ - Examples: 0 hours (real-time), 1 hour, 24 hours │
│ - Impacts: Backup frequency, data replication │
│ │
│ Example Matrix: │
│ ┌─────────────┬─────────────┬─────────────┐ │
│ │ System │ RTO │ RPO │ │
│ ├─────────────┼─────────────┼─────────────┤ │
│ │ Primary DB │ 1 hour │ 0 hours │ │
│ │ Secondary DB│ 4 hours │ 1 hour │ │
│ │ Analytics │ 24 hours │ 24 hours │ │
│ └─────────────┴─────────────┴─────────────┘ │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
Backup Strategies
Backup Types
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Backup Types │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ Full Backup: │
│ - Complete copy of all data │
│ - Longest to complete, easiest to restore │
│ - Storage: High, Frequency: Weekly │
│ │
│ Incremental Backup: │
│ - Only changed since last backup │
│ - Fastest to create, complex to restore │
│ - Storage: Low, Frequency: Daily │
│ │
│ Differential Backup: │
│ - Changed since last full backup │
│ - Faster restore than incremental │
│ - Storage: Medium, Frequency: Daily │
│ │
│ Snapshot Backup: │
│ - Point-in-time copy │
│ - Fast, storage-efficient │
│ - Storage: Medium, Frequency: Hourly │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
Backup Retention Policy
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Backup Retention Policy │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ Hourly Backups: 7 days │
│ Daily Backups: 30 days │
│ Weekly Backups: 90 days │
│ Monthly Backups: 1 year │
│ Annual Backups: 7 years (compliance) │
│ │
│ Retention Rules: │
│ - Keep last 7 daily backups │
│ - Keep last 4 weekly backups │
│ - Keep last 12 monthly backups │
│ - Keep 1 annual backup for compliance │
│ - Encrypt backups at rest │
│ - Test backup restoration monthly │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
Failover Strategies
Failover Types
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Failover Strategies │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ Hot Site: │
│ - Fully configured, ready to run │
│ - RTO: Minutes │
│ - RPO: Near-zero │
│ - Cost: High │
│ │
│ Warm Site: │
│ - Partially configured │
│ - RTO: Hours │
│ - RPO: Low │
│ - Cost: Medium │
│ │
│ Cold Site: │
│ - Basic infrastructure only │
│ - RTO: Days │
│ - RPO: High │
│ - Cost: Low │
│ │
│ Cloud-Based: │
│ - AWS/Azure/GCP recovery │
│ - RTO: Minutes to Hours │
│ - RPO: Variable │
│ - Cost: Variable │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
Failover Process
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Failover Process │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ 1. Detection │
│ - Monitor for failure │
│ - Confirm failure │
│ - Assess impact │
│ │
│ 2. Initiation │
│ - Activate DR team │
│ - Notify stakeholders │
│ - Begin failover procedures │
│ │
│ 3. Execution │
│ - Failover primary services │
│ - Verify services running │
│ - Update DNS records │
│ - Update load balancer │
│ │
│ 4. Validation │
│ - Test all services │
│ - Verify data integrity │
│ - Confirm RTO met │
│ - Confirm RPO met │
│ │
│ 5. Communication │
│ - Update stakeholders │
│ - Document incident │
│ - Schedule recovery │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
DR Testing
Testing Types
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ DR Testing Types │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ Checklist Review: │
│ - Review DR procedures │
│ - Check team availability │
│ - Verify contact lists │
│ - Duration: 1-2 hours │
│ │
│ Tabletop Exercise: │
│ - Simulate disaster scenario │
│ - Walk through procedures │
│ - Identify gaps │
│ - Duration: 2-4 hours │
│ │
│ Partial Failover Test: │
│ - Failover non-critical systems │
│ - Test restore procedures │
│ - Validate data integrity │
│ - Duration: 4-8 hours │
│ │
│ Full Failover Test: │
│ - Failover all systems │
│ - Test all procedures │
│ - Validate all data │
│ - Duration: 1-2 days │
│ │
│ Parallel Test: │
│ - Run both sites simultaneously │
│ - Validate data consistency │
│ - Test failback procedures │
│ - Duration: 1-2 days │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
Testing Schedule
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ DR Testing Schedule │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ Monthly: │
│ - Checklist review │
│ - Backup verification │
│ │
│ Quarterly: │
│ - Tabletop exercise │
│ - Partial failover test │
│ │
│ Semi-Annual: │
│ - Full failover test (non-production) │
│ - Documentation review │
│ │
│ Annual: │
│ - Full failover test (production) │
│ - Comprehensive review │
│ - Plan updates │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
Real-World Impact
Before this skill:
- No disaster recovery plan
- Data loss during disasters
- Extended downtime
- No failover procedures
- Unprepared team
After this skill:
- Comprehensive DR plan
- Minimal data loss
- Fast recovery
- Automated failover
- Prepared team
Cross-References
devops-pipeline - For CI/CD and deployment strategiessecurity-auditor - For DR security reviewdatabase-security - For database backup security
References
