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# VAPORA Disaster Recovery & Business Continuity

Complete disaster recovery and business continuity documentation for VAPORA production systems.

## Quick Navigation

I need to...

- Prepare for disaster: See Backup Strategy
- Recover from disaster: See Disaster Recovery Runbook
- Recover database: See Database Recovery Procedures
- Understand business continuity: See Business Continuity Plan
- Check current backup status: See Backup Strategy § Backup Monitoring

## Documentation Overview

### 1. Backup Strategy

File: `backup-strategy.md`

Purpose: Comprehensive backup strategy and implementation procedures

Content:

- Backup architecture and coverage
- Database backup procedures (SurrealDB)
- Configuration backups (ConfigMaps, Secrets)
- Infrastructure-as-code backups
- Application state backups
- Container image backups
- Backup monitoring and alerts
- Backup testing and validation
- Backup security and access control

Key Sections:

- RPO: 1 hour (maximum 1 hour data loss)
- RTO: 4 hours (restore within 4 hours)
- Daily backups: Database, configs, IaC
- Monthly backups: Archive to cold storage (7-year retention)
- Monthly restore tests for verification

Usage: Reference for backup planning and monitoring

### 2. Disaster Recovery Runbook

File: `disaster-recovery-runbook.md`

Purpose: Step-by-step procedures for disaster recovery

Content:

- Disaster severity levels (Critical → Informational)
- Initial disaster assessment (first 5 minutes)
- Scenario-specific recovery procedures
- Post-disaster procedures
- Disaster recovery drills
- Recovery readiness checklist
- RTO/RPA targets by scenario

Scenarios Covered:

1. Complete cluster failure (RTO: 2-4 hours)
2. Database corruption/loss (RTO: 1 hour)
3. Configuration corruption (RTO: 15 minutes)
4. Data center/region outage (RTO: 2 hours)

Usage: Follow when disaster declared

### 3. Database Recovery Procedures

File: `database-recovery-procedures.md`

Purpose: Detailed database recovery for various failure scenarios

Content:

- SurrealDB architecture
- 8 specific failure scenarios
- Pod restart procedures (2-3 min)
- Database corruption recovery (15-30 min)
- Storage failure recovery (20-30 min)
- Complete data loss recovery (30-60 min)
- Health checks and verification
- Troubleshooting procedures

Scenarios Covered:

1. Pod restart (most common, 2-3 min)
2. Pod CrashLoop (5-10 min)
3. Corrupted database (15-30 min)
4. Storage failure (20-30 min)
5. Complete data loss (30-60 min)
6. Backup verification failed (fallback)
7. Unexpected database growth (cleanup)
8. Replication lag (if applicable)

Usage: Reference for database-specific issues

### 4. Business Continuity Plan

File: `business-continuity-plan.md`

Purpose: Strategic business continuity planning and response

Content:

- Service criticality tiers
- Recovery priorities
- Availability and performance targets
- Incident response workflow
- Communication plans and templates
- Stakeholder management
- Resource requirements
- Escalation paths
- Testing procedures
- Contact information

Key Targets:

- Monthly uptime: 99.9% (target), 99.95% (current)
- RTO: 4 hours (critical services: 30 min)
- RPA: 1 hour (maximum data loss)

Usage: Reference for business planning and stakeholder communication

## Key Metrics & Targets

### Recovery Objectives

    RPO (Recovery Point Objective):
      1 hour - Maximum acceptable data loss

    RTO (Recovery Time Objective):
      - Critical services: 30 minutes
      - Full service: 4 hours

    Availability Target:
      - Monthly: 99.9% (43 minutes max downtime)
      - Weekly: 99.9% (6 minutes max downtime)
      - Daily: 99.8% (17 seconds max downtime)

    Current Performance:
      - Last quarter: 99.95% uptime
      - Exceeds target by 0.05%

### By Scenario

Scenario | RTO | RPA
--- | --- | ---
Pod restart | 2-3 min | 0 min
Pod crash | 3-5 min | 0 min
Database corruption | 15-30 min | 0 min
Storage failure | 20-30 min | 0 min
Complete data loss | 30-60 min | 1 hour
Region outage | 2-4 hours | 15 min
Complete cluster loss | 4 hours | 1 hour

## Backup Schedule at a Glance

    HOURLY:
    ├─ Database export to S3
    ├─ Compression & encryption
    └─ Retention: 24 hours

    DAILY:
    ├─ ConfigMaps & Secrets backup
    ├─ Deployment manifests backup
    ├─ IaC provisioning code backup
    └─ Retention: 30 days

    WEEKLY:
    ├─ Application logs export
    └─ Retention: Rolling window

    MONTHLY:
    ├─ Archive to cold storage (Glacier)
    ├─ Restore test (first Sunday)
    ├─ Quarterly audit report
    └─ Retention: 7 years

    QUARTERLY:
    ├─ Full DR drill
    ├─ Failover test
    ├─ Recovery procedure validation
    └─ Stakeholder review

## Disaster Severity Levels

### Level 1: Critical 🔴

Definition: Complete service loss, all users affected

Examples:

- Entire cluster down
- Database completely inaccessible
- All backups unavailable
- Region-wide infrastructure failure

Response:

- RTO: 30 minutes (critical services)
- Full team activation
- Executive involvement
- Updates every 2 minutes

Procedure: See Disaster Recovery Runbook § Scenario 1

### Level 2: Major 🟠

Definition: Partial service loss, significant users affected

Examples:

- Single region down
- Database corrupted but backups available
- Cluster partially unavailable
- 50%+ error rate

Response:

- RTO: 1-2 hours
- Incident team activated
- Updates every 5 minutes

Procedure: See Disaster Recovery Runbook § Scenario 2-3

### Level 3: Minor 🟡

Definition: Degraded service, limited user impact

Examples:

- Single pod failed
- Performance degradation
- Non-critical service down
- <10% error rate

Response:

- RTO: 15 minutes
- On-call engineer handles
- Updates as needed

Procedure: See Incident Response Runbook

## Pre-Disaster Preparation

### Before Any Disaster Happens

Monthly Checklist (first of each month):

- Verify hourly backups running
- Check backup file sizes normal
- Test restore procedure
- Update contact list
- Review recent logs for issues

Quarterly Checklist (every 3 months):

- Full disaster recovery drill
- Failover to alternate infrastructure
- Complete restore test
- Update runbooks based on learnings
- Stakeholder review and sign-off

Annually (January):

- Full comprehensive BCP review
- Complete system assessment
- Update recovery objectives if needed
- Significant process improvements

## During a Disaster

### First 5 Minutes

    1. DECLARE DISASTER
       - Assess severity (Level 1-4)
       - Determine scope

    2. ACTIVATE TEAM
       - Alert appropriate personnel
       - Assign Incident Commander
       - Open #incident channel

    3. ASSESS DAMAGE
       - What systems are affected?
       - Can any users be served?
       - Are backups accessible?

    4. DECIDE RECOVERY PATH
       - Quick fix possible?
       - Need full recovery?
       - Failover required?

### First 30 Minutes

    5. BEGIN RECOVERY
       - Start restore procedures
       - Deploy backup infrastructure if needed
       - Monitor progress

    6. COMMUNICATE STATUS
       - Internal team: Every 2 min
       - Customers: Every 5 min
       - Executives: Every 15 min

    7. VERIFY PROGRESS
       - Are we on track for RTO?
       - Any unexpected issues?
       - Escalate if needed

### First 2 Hours

    8. CONTINUE RECOVERY
       - Deploy services
       - Verify functionality
       - Monitor for issues

    9. VALIDATE RECOVERY
       - All systems operational?
       - Data integrity verified?
       - Performance acceptable?

    10. STABILIZE
        - Monitor closely for 30 min
        - Watch for anomalies
        - Begin root cause analysis

## After Recovery

### Immediate (Within 1 hour)

    ✓ Service fully recovered
    ✓ All systems operational
    ✓ Data integrity verified
    ✓ Performance normal

    → Begin root cause analysis
    → Document what happened
    → Identify improvements

### Follow-up (Within 24 hours)

    → Complete root cause analysis
    → Document lessons learned
    → Brief stakeholders
    → Schedule improvements

    Post-Incident Report:
    - Timeline of events
    - Root cause
    - Contributing factors
    - Preventive measures

### Implementation (Within 2 weeks)

    → Implement identified improvements
    → Test improvements
    → Update procedures/runbooks
    → Train team on changes
    → Archive incident documentation

## Recovery Readiness Checklist

Use this to verify you're ready for disaster:

### Infrastructure

- Primary region configured and tested
- Backup region prepared
- Load balancing configured
- DNS failover configured

### Data

- Hourly database backups
- Backups encrypted and validated
- Multiple backup locations
- Monthly restore tests pass

### Configuration

- ConfigMaps backed up daily
- Secrets encrypted and backed up
- Infrastructure-as-code in Git
- Deployment manifests versioned

### Documentation

- All procedures documented
- Runbooks current and tested
- Team trained on procedures
- Contacts updated and verified

### Testing

- Monthly restore test: ✓ Pass
- Quarterly DR drill: ✓ Pass
- Recovery times meet targets: ✓

### Monitoring

- Backup health alerts: ✓ Active
- Backup validation: ✓ Running
- Performance baseline: ✓ Recorded

## Common Questions

### Q: How often are backups taken?

A: Hourly for database (1-hour RPO), daily for configs/IaC. Monthly restore tests verify backups work.

### Q: How long does recovery take?

A: Depends on scenario. Pod restart: 2-3 min. Database recovery: 15-60 min. Full cluster: 2-4 hours.

### Q: How much data can we lose?

A: Maximum 1 hour (RPO = 1 hour). Worst case: lose transactions from last hour.

### Q: Are backups encrypted?

A: Yes. All backups use AES-256 encryption at rest. Stored in S3 with separate access keys.

### Q: How do we know backups work?

A: Monthly restore tests. We download a backup, restore to test database, and verify data integrity.

### Q: What if the backup location fails?

A: We have secondary backups in different region. Plus monthly archive copies to cold storage.

### Q: Who runs the disaster recovery?

A: Incident Commander (assigned during incident) directs response. Team follows procedures in runbooks.

### Q: When is the next DR drill?

A: Quarterly on last Friday of each quarter at 02:00 UTC. See Business Continuity Plan § Test Schedule.

## Support & Escalation

### If You Find an Issue

1. Document the problem

   - What happened?
   - When did it happen?
   - How did you find it?

2. Check the runbooks

   - Is it covered in procedures?
   - Try recommended solution

3. Escalate if needed

   - Ask in #incident-critical
   - Page on-call engineer for critical issues

4. Update documentation

   - If procedure unclear, suggest improvement
   - Submit PR to update runbooks

## Files Organization

    docs/disaster-recovery/
    ├── README.md                          ← You are here
    ├── backup-strategy.md                 (Backup implementation)
    ├── disaster-recovery-runbook.md       (Recovery procedures)
    ├── database-recovery-procedures.md    (Database-specific)
    └── business-continuity-plan.md        (Strategic planning)

## Related Documentation

Operations: `docs/operations/README.md`

- Deployment procedures
- Incident response
- On-call procedures
- Monitoring operations

Provisioning: `provisioning/`

- Configuration management
- Deployment automation
- Environment setup

CI/CD:

- GitHub Actions: `.github/workflows/`
- Woodpecker: `.woodpecker/`

## Key Contacts

Disaster Recovery Lead: [Name] [Phone] [@slack] Database Team Lead: [Name] [Phone] [@slack] Infrastructure Lead: [Name] [Phone] [@slack] CTO (Executive Escalation): [Name] [Phone] [@slack]

24/7 On-Call: [Name] [Phone] (Rotating weekly)

## Review & Approval

Role | Name | Signature | Date
--- | --- | --- | ---
CTO | [Name] | _____ | ____
Ops Manager | [Name] | _____ | ____
Database Lead | [Name] | _____ | ____
Compliance/Security | [Name] | _____ | ____

Next Review: [Date + 3 months]

## Key Takeaways

✅ Comprehensive Backup Strategy

- Hourly database backups
- Daily config backups
- Monthly archive retention
- Monthly restore tests

✅ Clear Recovery Procedures

- Scenario-specific runbooks
- Step-by-step commands
- Estimated recovery times
- Verification procedures

✅ Business Continuity Planning

- Defined severity levels
- Clear escalation paths
- Communication templates
- Stakeholder procedures

✅ Regular Testing

- Monthly backup tests
- Quarterly full DR drills
- Annual comprehensive review

✅ Team Readiness

- Defined roles and responsibilities
- 24/7 on-call rotations
- Trained procedures
- Updated contacts

Generated: 2026-01-12 Status: Production-Ready Last Review: 2026-01-12 Next Review: 2026-04-12