A disaster recovery plan (DRP) outlines how to recover IT systems after a disaster. It is usually part of a broader business continuity plan. Key steps in creating a DRP include conducting a risk analysis, establishing a budget, developing the recovery plan, and testing the plan. The risk analysis assesses risks like natural disasters, accidents, and malicious acts. The budget is based on the business impact of these risks. The recovery plan establishes recovery time and point objectives for critical systems and details backup, replication, and failover strategies to meet these objectives. Regular testing of backups, replication, and failovers is essential to ensure the plan works effectively.

1. Data Networking Year 2 Network Administration Planning a Disaster Recovery Plan Colm Bennett

2. What is a Disaster Recovery Plan? a set of policies and procedures for reacting to and recovering from an IT-disabling disaster Usually part of a Business Continuity Plan A BCP will cover more than just the IT side Usually a script detailing how to get from certain disaster scenarios back to functioning IT system

3. Steps in creating a DRP Risk Analysis Budget Develop the Plan Test

4. Risk Analysis Assess your key risks and probabilities of these risks Acts of God Flood, Wind etc Accident Overwrite key backup, pull wrong plug etc Malicious Virus, arson, theft etc Establish Business implications of key risks

5. Budget Based on business implications, establish budget for both prevention and recovery Ideally this budget is decided on by Business Unit after being presented with Risk Analysis by IT IT shouldn't make budget decision in isolation because they are not close enough to gauge real business impact of risks

6. Do Plan Establish Recovery Time Objectives (RTO) for key systems How long before they must be back up Establish Recovery Point Objectives (RPO) for key systems How much data much be recovered e.g. Can we restore accounts to end of last week? Based on these benchmarks, create a plan

7. Do Plan 3 Key approaches Mix and Match depending on RTO and RTP Backup and Restore ID Key Data Off Site storage Replication Backup Servers Hot off site etc Failover Hotswap parts Off site WAN cluster

8. Test It! Absolutely Key Backups should be restored periodically Replication sites should be used for real business Failover should switch from one to another regularly Should be updated with feedback from testing