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Disaster Recovery Testing

Amazing! You just built a nice Disaster Recovery site, and your important Virtual Machines are being replicated to that location. You even went further and replicated all the important storage volumes as well. Everything looks fantastic. The supplier assures you a Recovery Point Objective less than 2 hours and guaranties a Recovery Time Objective of 1 hour. You ask him to fail everything over then and he asks you if you are really sure you want to do this. Why then did I deploy the solution then? You ask yourself.

Things you need to know

The Recovery Point Objective (RPO) defines the exact point in time you will be able to revert to in case of an unplanned failover. Take it this way: if your RPO is less than or equal to 2 hours, it simply means that you will lose a maximum of 2 hours of work when a “disaster” occurs at the primary location.

The Recovery Time Objective (RTO) represents the duration it takes to do all the magic and get your system to start working at the recovery site. It includes how long it will take to failover the systems.

The Replication window is the time it takes to perform the replication from your primary site to your secondary or DR site. So, a 1-hour replication window means that it takes 1 hour to copy the data from one site to another. This window typically determines the RPO.

Replication

There are many ways you can provide replication for a system to ensure high availability and continuity when a disaster occurs or during a planned downtime. Replication can be synchronous (a write is acknowledged only when the secondary location has received it) or asynchronous (the data is transferred based on a change or time trigger intermittently). Replication will typically only transfer the delta information and ensure 100% consistency with the source data; this means that a file corrupted at the primary site will be corrupted at the secondary site when the replication cycle completes.

Choosing whether you go with synchronous, or asynchronous replication, depends on your resources and the performance hit you are willing to tolerate. For VMs you can perform the replication at the VM level or at the Storage Array level. A software such as active directory does not need infrastructure-based replication because it inherently supports synchronization across multiple systems. All you need it is to have another DC at the target location and the data is replicated at the application level. Always try to use this option when it is available.

Let Failover

  1. Before you perform a planned failover (or DR test), you need to ensure the software supports a planned failover that will ensure last minute data is transferred over to the target location before cutting off the source system.
  2. What do you plan to do about systems that are changing to IP address changes? Unless you are using a Layer 2 extension solution that allows you to maintain the same IP addresses across the two solutions, the IP addresses of the individual systems will change when you fail them over. You must have a well-documented plan on how you are going to proceed when the systems are failed. Let me put this into perspective. A server with IP address 10.10.10.1 speaks to a database using 10.10.10.2. After failing that system over, the IP of the server becomes 10.10.20.1 and the database becomes 10.10.20.2. How is the application going to know that the IP of the database has changed and will then try to connect to the new IP? You need to have a clear plan to accommodate those changes. You can take advantage of scripting to make this part less intensive.
  3. You need a way to get the users to know they will be running from the DR site and a way to let them start using the new system addresses. This can be accomplished by changing the DNS information of the failed systems (provided you rely on DNS for system access).
  4. For physical systems, you may have replicated the important volumes. You still need to log into the physical systems to mount those volumes and start/test the applications.

Let Failback

We are going to assume you were able to do all that I said in the previous section and the test was a success. All selected components are now operating at the DR site and you are ready to bring them back to the primary site. Well it is not that easy. You need to perform a replication backward so that changes that happened whilst the systems were running at the DR site are brought back. Once that backward synchronization is done, you can safely fail the systems back and ensure all the application parameters are brough back to their original state.

Summary

Pfiou! That was a lot of work. Yes, it is a lot of work to do it for the first time. The key is to document all the steps and use scripting when appropriate. Running a DR test is never as easy as it sounds but it is key to meet industry standards and to ensure business continuity. It is advised to run a DR test at least twice every year.

Next Step

Our team of experienced systems engineer are always available to discuss your DR strategy and recommend the right solution for every system. To discuss your disaster recovery requirements and possible solutions, call us on +233.54.431.5710 or write to sales@apotica.net.

About Apotica

Apotica, headquartered in Accra, Ghana brings together the best information and communications technologies to help clients grow, compete and serve their customers better.

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Matilda Dzamenu

Director, Finance

Matilda, a Chartered Accountant, joined Apotica in May 2023. With over 12 years of experience in banking, insurance, pensions, accounting and finance, she is responsible for the company’s financial control, strategic planning, management reporting, and overall financial performance.

She holds a BSc degree in Business Administration (Accounting) from the University of Ghana Business School and an MSc in Accounting and Finance from the same institution. Matilda is also a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants, Ghana.

Matilda has attended the Executive Education course in Strategic Management at the Maastricht School of Management in the Netherlands and participated in other leadership seminars around the world.

Peniel Korley

Head, Marketing

Peniel Korley is Head of Marketing for Apotica, designing and implementing comprehensive marketing strategies to create awareness of the company’s business activities.

Peniel joined Apotica in April 2019 and has helped build our market presence through an adept combination of traditional marketing and digital marketing techniques, executing and monitoring corporate promotion campaigns, and conducting market research to help us stay abreast of trends.

He earned a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from the University of Ghana and a Master of Business Administration degree in Marketing from the University of Ghana Business School. He’s a member of the Chartered Institute of Marketing, UK.

Sylvester Kyeremeh

Head, Projects

As Head of Projects, Sylvester Kyeremeh is responsible for coordinating people and processes to ensure that our client projects are delivered on time and produce the desired results. He leads this function within the confines of our quality management and information security management systems.

Sylvester joined Apotica in 2017 as a Systems Engineer, before moving on to join our project management practice a year later. His calm and collected approach to interpersonal engagements, impressive sense of planning, and excellent communication skills continue to receive the plaudits of our customers.

Sylvester received his B.S. degree in Computer Engineering from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science & Technology. He’s a Certified Information Systems Auditor, a Cisco-certified professional, an ISO 27001 Lead Implementer, and a member of the Project Management Institute with PMP and Scrum Master qualifications.

Millicent Afranie

Head, Risk & Compliance

At 25, Millicent is currently the youngest head of department at Apotica, taking up this role in August 2020. She’s responsible for managing all aspects of risk to the organization, employees, clients, assets, reputation, and interests of stakeholders. Millicent also works with the leadership of the organization to embed and maintain a risk-aware culture in the organization.

Before joining Apotica, she worked as a broadcast journalist at Radio Universe – a popular media house in Accra. Millicent holds a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology and has attended the Executive Education course in Personal Leadership at the Maastricht School of Management, Netherlands.

She’s a Certified Governance, Risk, and Compliance Professional (GRCP) and a qualified ISO 9001 Lead Implementer.

Elom Kutsienyo

Director, Technology

Elom Kutsienyo is the Chief Technology Officer at Apotica. A technology enthusiast and Apple nerd, he is responsible for the development and maintenance of our excellent technical services capabilities and enabling our engineering teams to become adept at industry best practices relating to enterprise solutions design, deployments, and support.

Since taking up the CTO role in August 2019, he has strategically grown our product offerings through strong channel partnerships with leading ICT vendors. Elom’s extensive experience in product sales, project management, service delivery, and field engineering also helps as he oversees company webinars, product demos, proof-of-value activities, and technical proposals for clients.

He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Telecom Engineering from Ghana Technology University College and has attained several professional qualifications including the coveted Cisco CCIE certification as well as certifications from Microsoft, VMware, NetApp, HPE, and Nutanix.

Clifford Williams

Director, Customer Experience

Clifford leads the Customer Experience practice at Apotica which encompasses our consulting, technology, support, and learning services.

Prior to his position at Apotica, Clifford was the senior manager of IT Infrastructure at Stanbic, a leading commercial bank in Ghana. He has also previously held roles in field engineering, service delivery, and customer support at organizations including Huawei, IBM, Tech Mahindra, and Zenith Bank.

Clifford is PMP-certified and holds a Bachelor’s in Information Technology, as well as several industry certifications from Microsoft, VMware, and Amazon.

Dzigbodi Amekoudi

Country Manager, Benin

Dzigbodi Amekoudi oversees company business in Benin and the countries in French West Africa. As Country Manager, his primary responsibility is business development, which involves helping to define and introduce the right go-to-market strategies and making sure our business operates profitably in the territory. He’s also responsible for establishing operating budgets and managing company employees in his region.

During his tenure, Dzigbodi has led Apotica’s expansion into other countries including Burkina Faso, Guinea Conakry, Mali, and Niger. Additionally, he works with our technical services leads to ensure successful post-sales delivery of customer projects.

Dzigbodi started his career in engineering and project management, before joining Apotica as a key accounts manager in January 2020.

He earned a Bachelor of Engineering degree in Telecommunications from Ghana Technology University College and a Master of Science degree in International Management from Franklin University Switzerland. He’s a member of the Chartered Institute of Marketing, UK.

Emmanuel Nketia

Director, Business

Emmanuel Nketia is responsible for managing all sales functions at Apotica and oversees other departments, including marketing, operations, and client renewals. An excellent salesman and negotiator, he brings with him 20 years of experience in logistics, accounting, business development, and customer relationship management.

He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Mathematics from Kwame Nkrumah University of Science & Technology. He’s also a member of the Chartered Institute of Marketing, UK, and an MBA Marketing candidate at the University of Ghana Business School.

Emmanuel has attended the Executive Education course in Strategic Management from the Maastricht School of Management in the Netherlands and participated in other leadership seminars in the USA.

Felix Nkansah

Chief Executive Officer

At Apotica, we are on a mission to help clients grow and serve their customers better. As CEO, Felix Nkansah works closely with our Sales, Services, and Operations leadership to identify customer and industry transitions and determine our strategies to address them.

Felix joined Apotica in January 2017 and brings more than 18 years of experience across executive leadership, systems engineering, customer support, and sales functions with some regional conglomerates and information technology companies.

He has a background in computer science and holds expert-level professional certifications in networking, security, and systems design.