Disaster Recovery

PAS 77 PAS 77 IT Service Continuity Management Framework is one of the Business Continuity Management framework best practices which provide guidance for IT and Business Continuity Management such as ITSCM Strategy, IT Continuity Risk Assessment, Testing and Maintenance. This guidance also could be used to assess the Continuity Architecture and Design consideration.

Basically this documents covers several process such as below:

Ensure that hardware redundancy is used to provide high availability where required.
Verify that redundant systems at separate sites are used where very high system availability is required.
Ensure that backup procedures are appropriate for respective systems.
Verify that systems can be restored from backup media.
Ensure that backup media can be retrieved promptly from off-site storage facilities.

For each type of operating system that is being protected, the disaster recovery operations guide should include the following:

Expectations of whom shall perform the recovery (for instance, if the recovery can only be performed by a system administrator rather than, say, an operator, it should be clearly stated)
Pre-recovery instructions for any preparatory work required (e.g., installing an SOE (Standard
Operating Environment), notifying management, recalling media, etc.)
Where to source any documentation or configuration information associated with the recovery operation, e.g.:
Electronic and hard copies of the latest system configuration details, such as, say, volume layout details, hardware configuration information, copies of critical files or licenses, etc.
Vendor, third-party, and internal documentation for key applications on the system as appropriate for the environment

There are two main part of Disaster Recovery Plan (DRP) Testing:
I. Conducting a recovery test
II. Areas to be tested
below samples of DRP testing templates and checklists

1. Select the purpose of the test. What aspects of the plan are being evaluated?
2. Describe the objectives of the test. How will you measure successful achievement of the objectives?
3. Meet with management and explain the test and objectives. Gain their agreement and support.
4. Have management announce the test and the expected completion time.