Another Successful Disaster Recovery Test

Another Successful Disaster Recovery Test

CIT’s hot-site test on February 23, 2000, was an unqualified success for customers who tested disaster recovery plans for their critical applications. This was largely due to preparations the day before the test. Hot-site tests are actually a two-day event—on the day before the application test, the CIT disaster support team tests communications and works with hot-site personnel to ensure system access at 8:00 A.M. on the day of testing.

During the February hot-site test CIT successfully

restored the OS/390 North and South environments for critical applications
tested VPS printing services on both North and South systems
tested restore procedures for new 9840 high-capacity tapes on the North system
tested 24 critical applications in areas such as payroll, accounting, finance, grants management and administration

Since the test, the disaster support team has been working with critical application customers who expressed interest in refining and enhancing their application recovery procedures and their disaster recovery plans.

Disaster recovery provisions for the EOS system are newer, so the EOS tests were more basic. In the recent test, CIT successfully

restored the Unix kernel

tested Comdisco’s turnkey service and documented operational procedures

managed the test from Comdisco’s remote console facility

restored an Oracle test instance via tape and ADSM on the South system

What Happens at a Hot-Site Test

CIT’s main objectives are to verify communications paths to the hot site and to restore the OS/390 and EOS operating environments for critical applications. The disaster-recovery test sequence emulates the actual steps needed to restore critical applications if a disaster should occur. A T-1 high-speed communication line provides connectivity to Comdisco’s hot-site equipment. By using a set of alternative disaster-test host names, critical application customers can test their applications using the same communications and processing environment that exists for their production work. In the event of a disaster, CIT will restore affected systems, test the communications paths and then switch the production host names to point to Comdisco’s facility.

Future Disaster Recovery Tests

CIT schedules two hot-site test events each year to test communications, operating environments, and resources needed to recover critical application systems. A second test this year is scheduled for August 15, 2000. Tests next year will be on March 14, 2001, and November 14, 2001.

If you or your organization are responsible for critical applications and want to participate in the August 15, 2000, hot-site test, please contact the CIT Disaster Recovery Manager, Mary Boehly, at (301) 496-5826 or e-mail her at Mary.Boehly@nih.gov.

Interface 214 (June 23, 2000)

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