In a large part, planning for a successful disaster recovery (DR) involves asking a number of “what if…” questions. What if an availability zone (AZ) goes down? How about a full region? What happens if the database stops working? At the core, the responses to these questions rely on a pair of foundational assumptions: “we can restore this” and “our backups actually work”. If you cannot answer those questions positively, it becomes nearly impossible to trust anything built on top of those assumptions.
Frequent rebuilds test these assumptions in a very real and practical way.
At a high level, disaster recover requires three key steps, each of which can be directly tested through frequent rebuilds:
Recreating the Infrastructure:
- Rebuilds ensure that your infrastructure-as-code (IaC) scripts and automations work as intended and allow you to replicate the environment consistently and accurately.
- Failures in scripts and misconfigurations are exposed early and can be resolved in a low-pressure environment.
Restoring Data:
- Routine rebuilds include data restorations, testing both the integrity and accessibility of your data backups
- Issues such as incomplete snapshots, corrupted backups, or missing files are exposed quickly and can be addressed before an actual disaster.
Validating the Functionality:
- Functional testing on build ensures that the restored systems, both application and infrastructure, work as intended
- Common startup issues, such as misaligned dependencies or misconfigurations, can be identified and addressed promptly.
The real value of frequent rebuilds is in the constant practice and feedback loop that they provide. By treating them as a dry-run for an actual disaster, you can:
- Expose risks and invalid assumptions early
- Reduce human error through automation and repetition
- Encourage iterative improvements
By grounding your DR planning in automated and frequent rebuilds, you transform a theoretical preparedness plan into a proven, actionable strategy.