Operational recovery is the recovery of specific parts of an IT infrastructure – a file, an email message, a component of Active Directory or now even a virtual machine.
Purpose of Operational Recovery
The purpose of operational recovery is to ensure operational continuity after someone makes a mistake, purposefully corrupts data, or a hardware or software component runs afoul. With operational recovery properly set up, you can ensure that critical operations continue after an incident and quickly resume normal operations. Operational Recovery is a base upon which you can plan your Disaster Recovery.
Types of Operational Recovery
Operational recovery may be classified based on the type of critical applications and application objects to be recovered:
- Email operational Recovery.
- Active Directory operational recovery.
- Virtual machine operational recovery.
- File system recovery.
When to Use Operational Recovery
Operational Recovery is usually applicable while restoring individual and small groups of systems and data. You use Operational Recovery when the main purpose is data recovery, but not data backup. When restoration of a group of VMs or applications is needed, something bigger than Operational Recovery is required. In general, RTO and RPO for Operational Recovery are much shorter. This is because you are recovering just a single server, a few servers, or set of files.
When Not to Use Operational Recovery
Certainly, when restoration of a major subsection or entire data centers of systems and data is needed, you usually plan a Disaster Recovery, not Operational Recovery. RTO and RPO for Disaster Recovery are much longer since the entire data center or a major portion of it is being recovered and replicated.
Important Notes
Please note the following when making sure your Operational Recovery is effective:
- Develop Operational Recovery Plan.
- Configure a recovery site.
- Avoid backing up and replicating manually.
- Apply hypervisor high-availability features.
- Properly order virtual machines and containers to be recovered.
- Optimize your bandwidth.
- Configure your backup repository properly.
- Test your operational recovery plan.
- Define the most appropriate recovery solution.