Disaster Recovery Testing for DevOps

Get ready for the worst: Disaster Recovery testing scenarios

To have the power of being an every-disaster-scenario-ready organisation, you need to foresee any of the events of failure. Here, we speak not only about understanding what those disasters can be but also about creating a well-developed scenario to address them. Why? Because a DR plan isn’t complete until it’s tested across realistic and high-risk scenarios. 

So, what can go wrong? 

DR testing scenario # 1 – Accidental deletion

Even with the most professional and well-trained team, human error remains one of the top causes of data loss. A simple delete command, misconfigured automation, or overlooked permissions can lead to repositories, metadata, or project data being wiped out. According to Infosec, human mistakes are responsible for 74% of data breaches.

Thus, your plan for DR plan testing should allow you granular restore capabilities, like recovering individual files, repositories, or projects. In this case, you don’t need to restore your entire organisation, but recover only the deleted data.

DR testing scenario # 2 – Service outage

Cloud-based providers like GitHub, GitLab, Atlassian, or Azure DevOps are highly reliable, though anything can happen. Downtime caused by regional outages, DNS failures, or platform bugs can sometimes paralyze your operations and destroy your workflow.

Let’s just recall the Jira outage in April 2024, 700+ organizations couldn’t access their Jira instances for over two weeks. Or more recent ones — the GitHub outage in 2024 that left 1000+ developers locked out of their projects, or the 2024 Azure DevOps outage that left its customers across North and Latin America taken down. 

In this case, it’s critical that you have the possibility to restore your data to an alternative platform. For example, if you use GitHub as your primary solution, you should test to be able to recover to GitLab, Bitbucket, or Azure DevOps, should GitHub be down (or vice versa).  

DR testing scenario # 3 – Infrastructure outage

Due to your organization, security or compliance needs, your company might need to use self-hosted DevOps environments, like GitHub Enterprise, Bitbucket Data Centre, or GitLab Ultimate. Thus, a hardware failure, power loss, or network disruption can bring your workflow down. In hybrid models, infrastructure dependencies also affect SaaS reliability. 

What restore option should you have? Restore to the cloud infrastructure. Also, it’s worth mentioning that you should have a few backup copies, e.g., keep up with the 3-2-1 backup rule. In this case, you will be able to restore your data from the off-site storage, ensuring business continuity. 

DR testing scenario # 4 – Ransomware attack or data corruption

Malicious actors actively target DevOps environments, understanding that organizations house their most critical digital assets there. For example, in 2024, dozens of GitHub repositories were compromised by a GitLocker ransomware attack. In its malicious scheme, the threat actor stole its victim’s GitHub data and demanded a ransom to give the critical data back. 

In such a scenario, your organization should have immutable and encrypted backups with ransomware protection. For example, your backup should offer WORM-compliant storage technology, as with it, each file is written once and can be read many times. It helps to prevent data from being modified or deleted. 

Moreover, you should have the possibility to restore your data from any point in time. Thus, if your data was corrupted, you can restore it from the copy before the corruption took place. 

DR testing scenario # 5 – Insider threat and access compromise

A compromised account or a disgruntled insider can wreak havoc, from code deletion to leaking sensitive data. Especially in environments where integrations and scripts have elevated permissions.

Need an example? In late 2022, Okta, a leading identity and access management (IAM) provider, disclosed that threat actors had gained unauthorized access to its private GitHub repositories. During the breach, attackers managed to copy Okta’s source code. While the company confirmed that no customer data or services were affected, such incidents highlight the real risks to any Git-based repository. In similar attacks, threat actors may not only exfiltrate source code but also attempt to modify or delete it, leading to potential data loss, supply chain threats, and operational disruptions. 

It’s important to test your restore abilities after any unauthorized changes. Here, point-in-time restore can be of help, as it allows rolling back to the moment before unauthorized changes happen. Also, it’s critical to have role-based access controls and audit logging.

Best practices for Disaster Recovery testing

We’ve already mentioned that an organization’s Disaster Recovery plan that hasn’t been tested is a plan that doesn’t exist. We should always keep in mind that disaster recovery planning isn’t about “if” there is a failure; it’s more about having proof that your organization can bounce back once the event of disaster occurs.

Let’s come to the key best practices that make your Disaster Recovery testing effective, efficient, and aligned with the strictest compliance requirements and your business goals: 

Tip 1: Have regular Disaster Recovery testing

It’s not a secret that annual DR tests are no longer enough. Cloud environments change rapidly, and so should your testing. Make sure to schedule DR drills at least quarterly. However, if there is a major infrastructure, tooling, or configuration change, it’s worth doing a DR plan test right after it. Such consistency may help your organization uncover vulnerabilities before an event of disaster happens.

Tip 2: Simulate real-world disaster scenarios

No two incidents are exactly the same; unfortunately, real-world threats don’t follow a template. So, don’t just “check the box” with common case tests. Try to run simulations based on actual threats, like ransomware attacks, accidental deletions, cloud outages, or other threats. In this case, your team will learn not only how to restore data but also how to respond to real-world threat scenarios. 

Tip 3: Validate your RPOs and RTOs

The average cost of downtime can soar as high as $9K per minute. That’s why validating your RPOs and RTOs (Recovery Point Objective and Recovery Time Objective) is a critical part of every DR test, as fast recovery can save your organization a fortune. 

During each test, ask yourself: “Is our recovery fast enough?” and “Are we losing more data than our business can tolerate?” Answering those questions will help you to fine-tune your DR strategy and ensure your objectives align with business SLAs and compliance requirements.

Tip 4: Involve cross-functional teams in DR testing

When disaster strikes, it affects not only your organization’s infrastructure but also impacts business continuity, customer experience, and compliance. Thus, it’s important to include representatives from security, DevOps, legal, and leadership in Disaster Recovery drills. 

This cross-functional approach will help you ensure that technical recovery aligns with broader business priorities, legal obligations, and customer communication strategies.

Tip 5: Document, debrief, and improve your Disaster Recovery plan

Make sure that every Disaster Recovery testing ends with a debrief, when you analyze the outcome of the operations you performed.

It may include the answer to such questions as:

• What did we do during the Disaster Recovery testing?
• What worked?
• Where did delays, confusion, or gaps occur?

Using these insights will help you update your DR documentation, adjust your Recovery Time Objective and Recovery Point Objective if needed, and enhance training or tooling. Let’s not forget, continuous improvement is key to resilience.

Top methods to test your Disaster Recovery strategy

We’ve already covered the Disaster Recovery testing best practices; however, there are some methods that can help you test your Disaster Recovery strategy: 

Takeaway

A Disaster Recovery plan that hasn’t been tested is a plan that doesn’t exist. Relying on outdated recovery assumptions can cost the organization thousands per minute, or even worse, compliance violations and lost trust. That’s why regular disaster scenario-based testing is essential.