Disaster Recovery Checklist

What this checklist is

A backup and disaster recovery checklist for teams running production systems in the cloud or on their own hardware. It covers recovery objectives per system, backup coverage, isolated and immutable copies, restore testing, zone and region strategy, runbooks, drills, dependencies and communication, each with a severity and a concrete way to verify it.

It has 7 chapters and 39 checks, each with how to verify it and how much it matters. For teams responsible for data and uptime.

Chapter by chapter

1. Recovery objectives (5 checks)

Whether each system has an agreed limit on downtime and data loss, set by the business, so every other choice has a target to meet.

2. Backup coverage and frequency (6 checks)

Whether everything you would need to rebuild is backed up, often enough to meet each RPO, and failures are noticed.

3. Off-site, isolated and immutable copies (6 checks)

Whether at least one copy survives the loss of the site, the account or an attacker with admin rights.

4. Restore testing (4 checks)

Whether backups can actually be restored, completely and correctly, within the RTO.

5. Zone and region strategy (6 checks)

Whether the recovery design for each tier matches its objectives, and the recovery site is ready when you need it.

6. Runbooks, drills and training (6 checks)

Whether people can carry out the recovery under pressure, using written steps that have been practised recently.

7. Dependencies and communication (6 checks)

Whether everything the recovery depends on is also recoverable, and the right people hear the right things while it happens.

How it works on Sefism

The checklist is one page: each check has a severity (must, should or nice to have) and a concrete way to verify it, and members can tick checks off as they go. The opening chapters are open to everyone. Adding it to your account uses credits, opens every chapter and keeps your progress.

Every claim is checked against the sources listed on the page (7 cited).