What Is a Disaster Drill?

After the construction of the disaster recovery system is completed, the disasters to be faced are nothing more than the data level, the application system level, and the disaster recovery center level.

Disaster Preparedness Exercise

Right!

After the construction of the disaster recovery system is completed, the disasters to be faced are nothing more than the data level, the application system level, and the disaster recovery center level.

Generally, after the completion of the disaster recovery system, the disasters are no more than three types: data level, application system level, and disaster recovery center level. Therefore, all the exercises are based on a specific scenario in these three levels, and the technical process of the exercise is different for different disaster scenarios.

Generally speaking, the initial versions of disaster recovery plans for almost all disaster recovery systems are based on scenarios based on assumptions of construction goals. The effectiveness of such disaster recovery plans and whether the processes can meet the needs of corporate IT departments to respond to disasters. The enterprise IT department needs to perform multiple multi-scenario drill verifications to verify personnel technical reserves, various resource coordination, and disaster recovery process organization.

The purpose of the exercise determines the exercise method. Generally, the exercise methods are divided into three types: sandbox exercise, simulation exercise, and actual business takeover exercise.

Sand table exercises are also called desktop exercises and are conducted before simulation exercises. Sand table exercises are a theoretical verification of the initial disaster recovery plan. In the disaster recovery plan, the personnel participating in the exercise describe the response and processing of the task module that they are responsible for.

Sand table deduction can test whether the disaster recovery plan and time schedule are reasonable, the personnel organization is effective, the responsibilities of the participating personnel, the technical reserve and the processing process meet the requirements of the plan. The difference between the result of the deduction and the restoration plan will further improve the restoration plan.

The simulation exercise is based on the results of the sand table (optimized disaster recovery plan). The simulation exercise is participated by the IT department and relevant business departments. It is a virtual operation of the process of possible disasters. Simulation exercises are used to verify whether the disaster recovery plan can achieve the expected goals.

The simulation exercise enables the actual disaster recovery system to achieve system and business recovery, and uses simulation data and simulation business system operation to verify the exercise plan. Many disaster recovery technologies can completely provide the startup function of the disaster recovery center without affecting the existing production system and disaster recovery system. Therefore, the actual disaster recovery system startup environment can be obtained at the disaster recovery center at any time and various application systems can be applied in this environment. Module. The process of the drill is highly close to the process of a real disaster. Through the drill, you can verify the availability of the disaster recovery system, the feasibility of the disaster recovery plan, and increase the awareness of the disaster handling process by the participants. The familiarity of the process and the proficiency of their respective tasks, increase the tacit understanding of the participants in the various links in the disaster management process.

Through simulation exercises to further improve the disaster recovery plan formed during the sandbox stage, find out the problems in the exercise process, summarize the effectiveness of command, control, communication, etc. during the exercise, the rationality of the time schedule, and the transfer of resources. demand.

The simulation drill is a drill that has no impact on the existing production environment, but it can achieve a more complete verification of the disaster recovery plan.

The actual business takeover drill is the same as the result processed in the event of a disaster, requiring the disaster recovery center to actually take over production for a period of time. The actual business takeover drill can test the disaster recovery capability and disaster recovery plan of the disaster recovery system to the greatest extent. Verify the actual business processing capabilities of the disaster recovery center at the time of the disaster. In the actual business takeover drill, data switchback is a more complicated link. For data switching back, there are two ways to handle it:

After the disaster recovery center is verified to be correct during the operation phase, it discards the verified data and directly starts the production center system to resume production.

The data from the disaster recovery center is restored to the production center in an incremental manner, and production is started at the production center. This method has greater risks. If the disaster scenario is a large disaster (such as an earthquake), the data may be switched back in a full amount.

The disaster recovery system drills of most enterprises need to be designed according to goals and risks. Three methods of disaster recovery drills, from paper theory to practical operation in a progressive manner, from business simulation to actual business participation at different levels, at different depths to verify the availability and effectiveness of the completed disaster recovery system. To revise, supplement, and improve disaster recovery plans and provide theoretical basis and data indicators for the upgrade and construction of disaster recovery systems, so that enterprises can rely on information system disaster recovery construction to ensure that the completed disaster recovery system can be fully realized The purpose of construction and the goal of construction.

Achieving the goals of disaster preparedness drills and improving their plans are the design goals of disaster preparedness drills. For enterprises, they must not be too greedy to cause unnecessary production risks and waste. ^[1]