Disaster Preparedness Resources

Scope

This article guides you through the best course of action to prepare for and act in a Disaster Recovery scenario. These instructions apply to Datto's Business Continuity Devices - SIRIS and ALTO.

IMPORTANT  In any Disaster Recovery Scenario, being prepared ensures a smooth process. We recommend that you read this guide thoroughly, before you ever need to follow a disaster recovery plan.

Background

Datto is committed to Intelligent Business Continuity. Not only do we want to get you back up and running instantly, we want to guide you in ensuring that your systems continue to perform as efficiently as possible. Let's get started.

Have a plan in mind

Assess your environment

Before you ever find yourself in a Disaster Recovery scenario, ask the question "In the event of a true disaster, what servers will I need to effectively run the day-to-day business?"

Identifying your core infrastructure may take some time, but it will be very useful in creating and launching your emergency plan. Start with the five most-needed servers, and identify what resources and dependencies they have, as shown in Figure 1. Keep important passwords in a safe-yet-accessible location, so that you can retrieve them in the event of a Disaster Recovery scenario.

Agent

Function

OS

IP Address

Gateway

Cores

RAM

crash-free-dc

Domain Controller

2012R2

192.168.1.2

192.168.1.1

2

8096

bugless-dns

DNS Server

2008

192.168.1.3

192.168.1.1

4

8096

never-fail-mail

Mail Server

2012R2

192.168.1.4

192.168.1.1

4

16384

Figure 1: Sample DR planning sheet

Perform a device audit

From the Partner Portal, you can create a Device Audit report for your core business servers. The report allows you to quickly review each server's backups, bootability, and offsite sync status in one report. Knowing the status of your backups will help you better understand what can be virtualized in a disaster.

Perform offsite Disaster Recovery tests

You can run tests of your offsite backups in an isolated or failover situation, which will help you plan how you will be able to respond during an event where local virtualization and restores are not possible.

Datto service also includes one assisted Cloud virtualization test per quarter, in which a Datto Technical Support Expert will help you make scheduling arrangements, set up the test, and answer any questions you may have.

You can learn more about scheduling an offsite Disaster Recovery test here in SIRIS, ALTO and NAS: Preparing for a cloud virtualization test: Policies, procedures, and partner responsibilities.

Next Steps

Should disaster recovery become necessary, see Datto disaster recovery guide for assistance.