Disaster Recovery - Azure Site Recovery
1. Purpose: The purpose of this Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) is to provide guidelines for implementing disaster recovery using Azure Site Recovery (ASR). ASR enables businesses to protect and recover their on-premises and cloud-based workloads in the event of a disaster or service disruption.
2. Scope: This SOP applies to IT personnel responsible for managing and maintaining the disaster recovery infrastructure and operations using Azure Site Recovery.
3. Responsibilities:
IT Infrastructure Team: Responsible for managing the on-premises infrastructure and configuring ASR.
Azure Administrators: Responsible for managing and configuring Azure resources required for ASR.
Application Owners: Responsible for identifying critical workloads and defining recovery objectives.
4. Procedure:
1. Planning and Configuration
a. Identify Critical Workloads:
Collaborate with application owners to identify critical workloads that require disaster recovery protection.
Determine Recovery Point Objective (RPO) and Recovery Time Objective (RTO) for each workload.
b. Design Azure Infrastructure:
Assess the existing on-premises infrastructure and design the target Azure infrastructure for disaster recovery.
Ensure sufficient capacity, network connectivity, and storage resources are available in Azure.
c. Configure Azure Site Recovery:
Create a Recovery Services vault in Azure to store recovery data.
Install and configure Azure Site Recovery Provider on the on-premises servers.
Configure replication settings for each identified workload, including replication frequency, retention policy, and target storage account.
d. Network Configuration:
Establish a secure VPN connection between the on-premises environment and Azure.
Configure virtual network settings in Azure to enable communication between on-premises and Azure resources.
2. Testing and Validation
a. Test Failover:
Perform a planned failover to validate the disaster recovery process.
Select a non-production time window for failover testing.
Document any issues or challenges encountered during the failover process.
b. Validate Application Functionality:
Verify that the critical workloads are functioning as expected in the Azure environment after failover.
Collaborate with application owners to conduct post-failover testing and validate data integrity.
c. Document Results:
Document the test results, including any identified issues, and share the report with the relevant stakeholders.
Collaborate with application owners to address and resolve any identified issues.
3. Ongoing Maintenance and Monitoring
a. Monitor Replication:
Regularly monitor the replication status of protected workloads in the Azure portal.
Investigate and resolve any replication failures or warnings promptly.
b. Update Configuration:
Update the disaster recovery configuration when there are changes in the on-premises infrastructure or workloads.
Review and update replication settings, network configurations, and recovery plans as needed.
c. Periodic Testing:
Conduct periodic disaster recovery tests to ensure the continued functionality and effectiveness of the Azure Site Recovery solution.
Schedule and perform both planned and unplanned failover tests to validate the recovery process.
d. Documentation and Reporting:
Maintain up-to-date documentation of the disaster recovery configuration, including recovery plans, network diagrams, and contact information.
Generate regular reports on the status of disaster recovery operations and share them with relevant stakeholders.
5. References:
Microsoft Azure Site Recovery documentation: [provide relevant links]
Disaster Recovery Plan: [reference the organization's overall disaster recovery plan]
Note: This SOP provides a general framework for implementing disaster recovery using Azure Site Recovery. It is recommended to tailor the procedure to align with your organization's specific requirements, infrastructure, and disaster recovery plan. Regular updates to the SOP should be made to incorporate any changes in Azure Site Recovery features and best practices.