Disaster Recovery Runbook for Hybrid UK Infrastructure
Disaster Recovery Runbook for Hybrid UK Infrastructure
A disaster recovery runbook for hybrid UK infrastructure must bridge on‑premises services, cloud platforms, and the realities of operating across UK time zones, suppliers, and regulatory expectations. If your team can restore backups but struggles to coordinate people, priorities, and decisions under pressure, the missing piece is usually a clear, rehearsed runbook.
This guide shows how to build a practical, testable document: RTO/RPO templates you can adapt, a prioritised workload list tied to dependencies, UK‑centric communication trees, and fast tabletop test scripts. It is designed for mixed environments that might include domain controllers and hypervisors in a rack, alongside containers, managed databases, or serverless in the cloud.
By the end, you will know how to set recovery objectives that reflect business impact, choose recovery patterns for on‑prem and cloud, define who calls whom and when, and prove your plan works through short, repeatable exercises—without turning the runbook into a lengthy manual that no one can follow during an incident.
What good looks like in a hybrid DR runbook
Key idea: Write for the 2 a.m. reader. Every step should be unambiguous, time‑boxed, and testable without the most senior engineer present.
Quick readiness checks
- The runbook lives in a location reachable if SSO is down and laptops are lost.
- RTO/RPO are defined per business service, not per server or VM.
- Identity, DNS, and networking recovery steps are first, not last.
- Supplier and cloud support contacts include out‑of‑hours numbers.
- Tabletop tests are scheduled, logged, and drive updates to the runbook.
Core components of a disaster recovery runbook for hybrid UK infrastructure
1) Business context and impact
List business services with a short description of how they create value, any UK‑specific peaks (e.g., tax year end, payday runs, retail seasonality), and the acceptable maximum tolerable downtime and data loss. Capture upstream/downstream dependencies so priorities are obvious under pressure.
2) Recovery objectives (RTO/RPO)
Set clear targets per service and state the recovery pattern (backup/restore, warm standby, active‑active). Document degraded modes—what you can safely switch off to meet objectives—and the monitoring signals that confirm recovery is on track.
Example RTO/RPO template (adapt for your services)
| Tier | Example workloads | Target RTO | Target RPO | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tier 0 | Identity (AD/AAD), DNS, core network, secrets | 1–2 hours | < 15 minutes | Foundation services needed before app recovery |
| Tier 1 | Customer portal, payments, order processing | 2–4 hours | < 30 minutes | Consider warm standby or geo‑replicated DB |
| Tier 2 | Internal reporting, intranet, non‑critical batch | 8–24 hours | 4–12 hours | Backup/restore usually sufficient |
3) Prioritised workload list and dependency map
Create a one‑page list ordered by recovery priority. For each service, show its dependencies (identity, DNS, database, storage, queues), the recovery location (secondary site, cloud region), and the verification check (e.g., probe URL, sample transaction).
4) Access and control during an incident
Document emergency access: who can approve break‑glass accounts, where credentials are stored, and how to rotate them after use. Include steps to re‑establish MFA and conditional access once the core identity platform is restored.
On‑prem and cloud: recovery patterns that actually work
On‑prem snapshot
- Power, cooling, and hardware checks; then hypervisor clusters.
- Storage arrays and replication status; mount and validate volumes.
- Bring up Tier 0: AD, DNS, DHCP, core routing/firewalls.
- Restore management tooling (backup server, monitoring).
- Recover databases and application tiers in priority order.
- Run smoke tests and open for controlled user access.
Cloud snapshot
- Confirm blast radius; decide region failover vs re‑provision.
- Apply Infrastructure‑as‑Code to rebuild baseline networking and IAM.
- Restore secrets and keys; verify service principals/roles.
- Promote replicas or restore from snapshots; update DNS with short TTLs.
- Scale out stateless tiers; replay queued messages if applicable.
- Run health checks and enable traffic via load balancers/traffic manager.
Order matters: Identity and name resolution come first. If users cannot authenticate and services cannot find each other, recovery stalls regardless of compute capacity.
UK‑centric communication tree and notifications
Internal escalation
- Incident Lead (on‑call), Deputy, and Scribe
- Service Owners for Tier 0 and Tier 1
- Network/Security leads; Data/Database lead
- Executive sponsor and stakeholder updates cadence (e.g., every 30–60 minutes)
External and supplier touchpoints
- Cloud provider support case with severity and business impact
- Telecoms/ISP NOC for circuit or DDoS issues
- Key SaaS vendors (status, workarounds, ETAs)
- Customers and partners via prepared holding statements
Include UK bank holidays and weekend rota coverage. Where personal data may be involved, align notifications with UK GDPR obligations, including reporting to the ICO when required. This content is operational guidance, not legal advice—validate with your legal/compliance team.
Tabletop test scripts you can reuse
90‑minute drill: database outage, partial network loss
- 0–10 min: Triage, appoint roles, start incident channel, log timeline.
- 10–30 min: Promote replica/restore snapshot; validate identity and DNS.
- 30–60 min: App tier recovery; run sample transaction; customer comms draft.
- 60–90 min: Decision on rollback vs continue; capture lessons and action owners.
Half‑day walk‑through: region failover
- Prove Infrastructure‑as‑Code can recreate baseline in alternate region/site.
- Execute DNS cutover with reduced TTLs and monitor propagation.
- Verify data integrity and reconcile any lost messages or batches.
- Exercise return‑to‑service and cost rollback plan after stabilisation.
Artifacts to prepare before testing
- Printed comms tree with out‑of‑hours numbers and alternatives
- Runbook link, offline copy, and version number
- Last known good backups and restore credentials
- Smoke test scripts and success criteria per service
- Post‑exercise review template with owners and due dates
Common pitfalls and selection criteria
Backup/restore
Cost‑effective
- Good for Tier 2 workloads
- Needs frequent restore testing
Warm standby
Balanced
- Suited to Tier 1 apps
- Keep data replication lag within RPO
Active‑active
Resilient
- For strict RTO/RPO
- Higher complexity and cost
Mistakes to avoid
- Writing runbooks per server rather than per business service.
- Assuming cloud SLAs replace your recovery plan.
- Testing restores but never practising DNS, identity, and comms.
- Storing the only copy of the runbook in a system that may be unavailable.
Decision criteria that matter
- Data change rate: Drives RPO and replication approach.
- Dependency criticality: Tier 0 must be first and fast.
- Network reachability: Plan for VPN/ExpressRoute failure modes.
- Operational load: Choose patterns the team can actually run at 2 a.m.
Final guidance
Keep the runbook short, specific, and living. Lead with identity, DNS, and networking; define RTO/RPO per service; practise with brief, regular tabletop drills; and update contact trees and steps after every exercise. If you can read it fast and execute it under stress, you are ready for the next incident.
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