Disaster Recovery Testing Overview
Implement systematic disaster recovery testing to validate recovery procedures, measure RTO/RPO, identify gaps, and ensure team readiness for actual incidents.
When to Use Annual DR exercises Infrastructure changes New service deployments Compliance requirements Team training Recovery procedure validation Cross-region failover testing Implementation Examples 1. DR Test Plan and Execution
dr-test-plan.yaml
apiVersion: v1 kind: ConfigMap metadata: name: dr-test-procedures namespace: operations data: dr-test-plan.md: | # Disaster Recovery Test Plan
## Test Objectives
- Validate backup restoration procedures
- Verify failover mechanisms
- Test DNS failover
- Validate data integrity post-recovery
- Measure RTO and RPO
- Train incident response team
## Pre-Test Checklist
- [ ] Notify stakeholders
- [ ] Schedule 4-6 hour window
- [ ] Disable alerting to prevent noise
- [ ] Backup production data
- [ ] Ensure DR environment is isolated
- [ ] Have rollback plan ready
## Test Scope
- Primary database failover to standby
- Application failover to DR site
- DNS resolution update
- Load balancer health checks
- Data synchronization verification
## Success Criteria
- RTO: < 1 hour
- RPO: < 15 minutes
- Zero data loss
- All services operational
- Alerts functional
## Post-Test Activities
- Document timeline
- Identify gaps
- Update procedures
- Schedule post-mortem
- Update team documentation
apiVersion: batch/v1 kind: Job metadata: name: dr-test-executor namespace: operations spec: template: spec: serviceAccountName: dr-test-sa containers: - name: executor image: alpine:latest env: - name: TEST_ID value: "dr-test-$(date +%s)" - name: BACKUP_BUCKET value: "s3://my-backups" - name: DR_NAMESPACE value: "dr-test" command: - sh - -c - | apk add --no-cache aws-cli kubectl jq postgresql-client mysql-client
echo "Starting DR Test: $TEST_ID"
# Step 1: Create test namespace
echo "Creating isolated test environment..."
kubectl create namespace "$DR_NAMESPACE" --dry-run=client -o yaml | kubectl apply -f -
# Step 2: Restore database from backup
echo "Restoring database from latest backup..."
LATEST_BACKUP=$(aws s3 ls "$BACKUP_BUCKET/databases/" | \
sort | tail -n 1 | awk '{print $4}')
aws s3 cp "$BACKUP_BUCKET/databases/$LATEST_BACKUP" - | \
gunzip | psql postgres://user:pass@dr-db:5432/testdb
# Step 3: Deploy application to DR namespace
echo "Deploying application to DR environment..."
kubectl set image deployment/myapp \
myapp=myrepo/myapp:production \
-n "$DR_NAMESPACE"
# Step 4: Run health checks
echo "Running health checks..."
for i in {1..30}; do
if curl -sf http://myapp-dr/health > /dev/null; then
echo "Health check passed"
break
fi
echo "Waiting for service to be healthy... ($i/30)"
sleep 10
done
# Step 5: Run smoke tests
echo "Running smoke tests..."
kubectl exec -it deployment/myapp -n "$DR_NAMESPACE" -- \
npm run test:smoke || exit 1
# Step 6: Validate data integrity
echo "Validating data integrity..."
PROD_RECORD_COUNT=$(psql postgres://user:pass@prod-db:5432/mydb \
-t -c "SELECT COUNT(*) FROM users;")
DR_RECORD_COUNT=$(psql postgres://user:pass@dr-db:5432/testdb \
-t -c "SELECT COUNT(*) FROM users;")
if [ "$PROD_RECORD_COUNT" -eq "$DR_RECORD_COUNT" ]; then
echo "Data integrity verified"
else
echo "Data integrity check failed"
exit 1
fi
# Step 7: Record metrics
echo "Recording DR test metrics..."
kubectl logs deployment/myapp -n "$DR_NAMESPACE" | \
grep "startup_time" | jq '.' > /tmp/dr-metrics-$TEST_ID.json
echo "DR Test Complete: $TEST_ID"
restartPolicy: Never
apiVersion: v1 kind: ServiceAccount metadata: name: dr-test-sa namespace: operations
apiVersion: rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1 kind: ClusterRole metadata: name: dr-test rules: - apiGroups: [""] resources: ["namespaces"] verbs: ["create", "get", "list"] - apiGroups: ["apps"] resources: ["deployments"] verbs: ["create", "get", "list", "patch", "set"] - apiGroups: [""] resources: ["pods", "pods/log"] verbs: ["get", "list"] - apiGroups: [""] resources: ["pods/exec"] verbs: ["create", "get"]
apiVersion: rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1 kind: ClusterRoleBinding metadata: name: dr-test roleRef: apiGroup: rbac.authorization.k8s.io kind: ClusterRole name: dr-test subjects: - kind: ServiceAccount name: dr-test-sa namespace: operations
- DR Test Script
!/bin/bash
execute-dr-test.sh - Comprehensive DR test execution
set -euo pipefail
TEST_ID="dr-test-$(date +%Y%m%d-%H%M%S)" LOG_FILE="/tmp/dr-test-${TEST_ID}.log" METRICS_FILE="/tmp/dr-metrics-${TEST_ID}.json"
Logging
exec 1> >(tee -a "$LOG_FILE") exec 2>&1
log_info() { echo "[INFO] $(date '+%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S') $1" }
log_error() { echo "[ERROR] $(date '+%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S') $1" }
Start time
START_TIME=$(date +%s)
log_info "Starting DR Test: $TEST_ID"
Disable production monitoring
log_info "Disabling production alerts..." aws sns set-topic-attributes \ --topic-arn "arn:aws:sns:us-east-1:123456789012:prod-alerts" \ --attribute-name DisplayName \ --attribute-value "DR Test - Alerts Disabled"
Phase 1: Backup Validation
log_info "Phase 1: Validating backups..." if ! aws s3 ls s3://my-backups/databases/ | grep -q "sql.gz"; then log_error "No valid backups found" exit 1 fi
Phase 2: Environment Setup
log_info "Phase 2: Setting up DR environment..." LATEST_BACKUP=$(aws s3 ls s3://my-backups/databases/ | \ sort | tail -n 1 | awk '{print $4}')
log_info "Using backup: $LATEST_BACKUP" aws s3 cp "s3://my-backups/databases/$LATEST_BACKUP" - | gunzip > /tmp/restore.sql
Phase 3: Database Restoration
log_info "Phase 3: Restoring database..." psql -h dr-db.internal -U postgres -d postgres -f /tmp/restore.sql > /dev/null 2>&1
Phase 4: Application Deployment
log_info "Phase 4: Deploying application..." kubectl create namespace dr-test --dry-run=client -o yaml | kubectl apply -f - kubectl apply -f dr-deployment.yaml -n dr-test kubectl rollout status deployment/myapp -n dr-test --timeout=10m
Phase 5: Health Checks
log_info "Phase 5: Running health checks..." HEALTH_CHECK_START=$(date +%s)
for i in {1..60}; do if curl -sf --max-time 5 http://myapp-dr.internal/health > /dev/null 2>&1; then HEALTH_CHECK_TIME=$(($(date +%s) - HEALTH_CHECK_START)) log_info "Health check passed in ${HEALTH_CHECK_TIME}s" break fi if [ $i -eq 60 ]; then log_error "Health check timeout" exit 1 fi sleep 10 done
Phase 6: Data Integrity
log_info "Phase 6: Validating data integrity..." PROD_HASH=$(psql -h prod-db.internal -U postgres -d mydb -t -c \ "SELECT md5(string_agg(CAST(id AS text), ',')) FROM users ORDER BY id;") DR_HASH=$(psql -h dr-db.internal -U postgres -d mydb -t -c \ "SELECT md5(string_agg(CAST(id AS text), ',')) FROM users ORDER BY id;")
if [ "$PROD_HASH" = "$DR_HASH" ]; then log_info "Data integrity verified" else log_error "Data integrity check failed: $PROD_HASH != $DR_HASH" fi
Phase 7: Smoke Tests
log_info "Phase 7: Running smoke tests..." kubectl exec -it deployment/myapp -n dr-test -- npm run test:smoke || \ log_error "Smoke tests failed"
Record metrics
END_TIME=$(date +%s) TOTAL_TIME=$((END_TIME - START_TIME)) RTO=$TOTAL_TIME RPO=$(date -d "$(aws s3api head-object --bucket my-backups --key databases/$LATEST_BACKUP --query 'LastModified' --output text)" +%s)
log_info "DR Test Complete" log_info "Total time: ${TOTAL_TIME}s" log_info "RTO: ${RTO}s (target: 3600s)" log_info "RPO: $(date -d @$RPO)"
Generate report
cat > "$METRICS_FILE" <<EOF { "test_id": "$TEST_ID", "start_time": $START_TIME, "end_time": $END_TIME, "rto_seconds": $RTO, "rpo_timestamp": $RPO, "data_integrity": "PASS", "health_check": "PASS", "smoke_tests": "PASS" } EOF
log_info "Metrics saved to: $METRICS_FILE"
Re-enable monitoring
log_info "Re-enabling production alerts..." aws sns set-topic-attributes \ --topic-arn "arn:aws:sns:us-east-1:123456789012:prod-alerts" \ --attribute-name DisplayName \ --attribute-value "Production Alerts"
log_info "Test artifacts: $LOG_FILE, $METRICS_FILE"
- DR Test Automation
scheduled-dr-tests.yaml
apiVersion: batch/v1 kind: CronJob metadata: name: quarterly-dr-test namespace: operations spec: # Run quarterly on first Monday of each quarter at 2 AM schedule: "0 2 2-8 1,4,7,10 MON" jobTemplate: spec: backoffLimit: 0 template: spec: serviceAccountName: dr-test-sa containers: - name: dr-test image: myrepo/dr-test:latest command: - /usr/local/bin/execute-dr-test.sh env: - name: SLACK_WEBHOOK valueFrom: secretKeyRef: name: dr-notifications key: slack-webhook - name: TEST_MODE value: "full" restartPolicy: Never
Best Practices ✅ DO Schedule regular DR tests Document procedures in advance Test in isolated environments Measure actual RTO/RPO Involve all teams Automate validation Record findings Update procedures based on results ❌ DON'T Skip DR testing Test during business hours Test against production Ignore test failures Neglect post-test analysis Forget to re-enable monitoring Use stale backup processes Test only once a year DR Test Levels Tabletop: Documentation and discussion Simulation: Controlled partial failover Full DR: Complete system failover Continuous: Ongoing shadow operations Key Metrics RTO: Recovery Time Objective RPO: Recovery Point Objective MTPD: Mean Time to Detect MTTR: Mean Time to Recover Resources AWS Disaster Recovery Disaster Recovery Testing Best Practices NIST Disaster Recovery Planning