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Test Process

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Jonah May
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Table of Contents

    Overview

    This article provides a brief overview of the various steps taken during the DR testing process with CyberFortress.

     

    Step 1 - Questionnaire Submission

    During this step, the customer completes the DR Questionnaire. This provides CyberFortress with essential information about the test being requested such as the workloads that will be tested, the resources required for the test, and the user accounts to be created. Upon submission, the questionnaire will be reviewed by an engineer and the Account Management team.

     

    Step 2 - Pre-DR Test Meeting

    The Pre-DR test meeting is designed to prepare the customer for a DR test and to ensure that CyberFortress has the information they need from the questionnaire. During the Pre-DR test meeting, the following will be covered:
    • Review DR questionnaire
    • Review DR test process
    • Review DR test scope
    • Define success criteria for test
    • Clarify questions and details
    • Set the testing schedule

     

    Step 3 - Backup Verification

    During step 3, a CyberFortress engineer validates that the machines entered into the questionnaire have recent restore points in our Cloud Connect infrastructure, to ensure that up-to-date data is included in the test.

     

    Step 4 - VMware Cloud Director Setup

    In step 4, the CyberFortress engineer provisions the testing environment by creating the sandbox, including but not limited to resource pools, network segments, users, and SSL-VPN configuration.

     

    Step 5 - Restore Meeting

    The DR Test Restore Meeting is the final meeting before the testing window begins and covers the following items:

    • Disabling of customer backup/replication jobs
    • Entering encryption passwords for encrypted backups
    • Start of backup/replica restore into the sandbox
    • Demo and walkthrough of the testing environment and access

     

    Step 5 - Active Testing

    During active testing, the customer performs all workload and application validation they need to ensure cloud connect data is valid. All configuration changes performed, whether to a VM or to resources within VMware Cloud Director should be documented, to ensure the smoothest transition possible during a disaster declaration.

     

    Step 6 - Wrap-Up

    The DR Test Wrap-Up Meeting is held at the completion of the testing window to confirm whether or not the testing was successful. If any issues occurred during the course of the test, these should be relayed to Cyber Fortress to be added to the DR Test Report. This is also a great opportunity to answer any final lingering questions regarding future tests and true disaster declarations.

     

    Step 7 - Report Generation

    After the wrap-up meeting, the CyberFortress engineer will create a DR test report and certificate of completion, inputting feedback received during the wrap-up meeting and various metrics collected during the testing process. At this point, the sandbox will be torn down and all changes made to restored workloads will be discarded.

     

    Step 8 - Report Sign-Off

    Once compiled, the DR test report and certificate of completion will be sent to the appropriate CyberFortress and customer employees for virtual signatures.

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