Top 5 Disaster Recovery Reports IT Risk and Business Continuity Managers Live For

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1 Whitepaper Top 5 Disaster Recovery Reports IT Risk and Business Continuity Managers Live For 1. Disaster Recovery Runbook Report 2. Disaster Recovery Compliance Report 3. Disaster Recovery Listing: Virtual Machines & Tests 4. Job History Report 5. Disaster Recovery User Audit Report

2 2 IT Risk and Business Continuity Managers face unprecedented challenges ensuring their organizations are prepared with disaster recovery plans that can be properly tested to assure they will perform as expected. That includes generating reports that demonstrate compliance with SLA s, audit, and regulatory requirements. At a June 2011 Infrastructure Summit, Gartner s John Morency went on the record about the high cost of recovery testing. He remarked that most organizations with whom John speaks report averaging $30K-40K per test. Some even estimated spending as much as $100K on a single disaster recovery test exercise. * Instead of having to invest tens of thousands of dollars in valuable IT resources, you now have the option to leap frog expensive, labor-intensive legacy DR testing techniques. With ReliableDR from Unitrends you can now conduct disaster recovery testing for VMware environments as often as you like at a fraction of the cost and immediately generate reports to show your results. Deploying ReliableDR for VMware as part of your organization s IT disaster recovery plan, enables you to produce the official DR plan documentation and audit reports you want and expect conveniently and quickly. These critical reports are produced as part of the disaster recovery information that you configure directly in ReliableDR and so are immediately available when you deploy the product. They are available from both the Professional and Enterprise editions of ReliableDR product at no additional cost. See for yourself how valuable these reports can be in demonstrating the effectiveness of your disaster recovery plans. How ReliableDR Transforms Disaster Recovery Plan Testing ReliableDR Automates DR Testing to Reduce Costs, Minimize Risk and Restore Confidence Unitrends has taken the lead in transforming traditional disaster recovery testingefforts aimed at verifying the viability of disaster recovery (DR) plans. Testing systems to determine if disaster recovery objectives can be achieved has until now been an expensive and laborious process. A leading analyst firm estimates that because of the complexityand cost, disaster recovery testing takes place only once or twice a year if at all costing tens of thousands, even millions of dollars or more! Unitrends has changed the DR landscape by taking the complexity and uncertainty out of DR testing and transforming it into Disaster Recovery Assurance. *

3 3 Disaster Recovery Assurance represents a paradigm shift for IT operations because it unlocks enormous value for companies of any size to deliver these key benefits. From DR testing once or twice per year to daily or even hourly DR testing with conventional tools is so complex that tests need to be planned and prepared usually 2 or 3 months in advance. So it is not surprising most organizations test only once or twice a year. Disaster Recovery Assurance enables any organization to conduct DR tests every few hours. ReliableDR automates DR testing so you can conduct tests as frequently as you want, enabling you to certify your VMs will recover as planned, and within corresponding SLAs. Reducing DR testing costs by 90% or more Disaster Recovery Assurance with ReliableDR for VMware frees up valuable cash and human resources. DR tests are not only disruptive but also very expensive. To test properly many organizations have to rent data center space, bring in consultants and divert valuable staff resources. A smaller organization can spend $30,000 or more per test and devote between 1500 and 4000 man-days per year to conduct DR testing. A Fortune 500 enterprise could spend millions of dollars per DR test. Because ReliableDR automates testing to test as frequently as you need, the cost per test is driven down dramatically, in many cases well over 90 percent. With a solution like ReliableDR, the cost per test of verifying objectives for DR can be met is no longer an issue. Minimizing the risk that DR plans go out of date Even with considerable investment in traditional DR testing, the results can be obsolete within hours. That s because IT constantly reconfigures and reallocates virtualized resources; CPUs, cores, servers, memory, all of the storage, and increasingly networks. Only ReliableDR gives you an affordable way to test as frequently as you want, hourly if desired, so you can confidently demonstrate your recovery procedures will meet objectives, and that they comply with business continuity requirements.

4 4 The IT Risk and Business Continuity Managers Live For: 1. Disaster Recovery Runbook Report The Disaster Recovery RunBook Report is a precision tool for documenting the actual operation of your DR plan. This report creates a record of every step of a ReliableDR testing exercise. For each step, it records the name of the step, the result indicating if the step completed successfully, the start and end times of the step, and a system-generated description of the step. The steps are quite detailed yet easy for non-technical users to understand. Steps will show, for example, that the VM was replicated, it was powered on, and it was booted in a particular What you gain from this report: Often used when ReliableDR specifications are first created to check that the assurance test is covering the right virtual machines and has the right checks in place. Enables Disaster Recovery Planners to document the Virtual Machines included in a DR test and their test results. Provides auditors with detailed information on DR compliance. The reports can be run at any time to fulfill compliance requests, and users can set how long they want to retain the information featured in the report. Recovery Step Web Servers HBR Refresh Data Replicate VM Web01 Hard Disk 1 (2GB) Web02 Hard disk 1 (2 GB) Power On VM Boot order: group 1 Web01: Demo Hbr Ping Host World Wide Web Publish Service Check web site Power Off VM web01: Demo HBR web02: Demo HBR Finished Task Removing old snapshots Removing old snapshots Result Progress (%) Skip Skip Start time End time Description 26/05/ :15:07 26/05/ :15:10 26/05/ :15:13 26/05/ :15:13 26/05/ :15:35 26/05/ :15:13 26/05/ :15:41 26/05/ :22:14 26/05/ :23:01 26/05/ :23:28 26/05/ :23:28 26/05/ :23:36 26/05/ :23:36 26/05/ :23:36 26/05/ :24:08 26/05/ :15:13 26/05/ :17:01 26/05/ :17:07 26/05/ :16:36 26/05/ :23:27 26/05/ :23:27 26/05/ :23:27 26/05/ :22:53 Job Finished Data copied: 58,240 KB of 58,240 KB. Read time: 76 seconds: Write time: 76 seconds Executing guest operating system scripts finished succssessfully Script execution has finished successfully 26/05/ :23:36 26/05/ :23:28 26/05/ :23:36 The VM (Web02. Demo HBR) is powered off 26/05/ :24:08 26/05/ :24:01 26/05/ :24:06 Report 1

5 5 2. Disaster Recovery Compliance Report The Disaster Recovery Compliance Report documents adherence to your organization s Disaster Recovery standards. It is ideal for organizations that must demonstrate the ability to meet Recovery Point Objectives (RPOs) and Recovery Time Objectives (RTOs) for their Disaster Recovery Plan. The Disaster Recovery Compliance Report shows all the ReliableDR jobs that were run for a given time period. The last certified recovery point date on this report documents the most recent replication that can be failed over in the event of a disaster. The report also compares the recovery point actual time to the recovery point objective time, as well as the recovery time actual to the recovery time objective, in order to help verify that your service level agreements are being met. What you gain from this report: The Recovery Compliance report can be conveniently run on-demand or scheduled and distributed to auditors or compliance officers. A built-in reports scheduler allows you to run this report automatically with the latest information. If your Disaster Recovery plans or tests must be reviewed, filed, or updated on a regular basis, the reports scheduler frees up your IT staff from these labor intensive processes. Once reports are automatically generated, they can be ed automatically to management, compliance staff, IT departments or any internal and external individuals who are stakeholders in your organization s Disaster Recovery plans. Reports are available in Excel formats, allowing the data to be reformatted or augmented, or in locked PDF formats to prevent any revisions. Your company logo can be added to this report to create official documents. While most organizations run and file this report on a regular basis as official certified documentation, reports can also be produced on demand to meet audit requests or document disaster recovery simulations.

6 6 Specification Name Last CRP date RP Actual App. RPO RT Actual App. RTO Finance Applications 28-May :04 AM 1h 38m 34s 2h 0m 0s 4m 17s 5m Finance Applications 27-May :04 AM 1d 0h 38m 23s 1d 0h 0m 3m 52s 5m Finance Applications 28-May :31 AM 2h 38m 37s 1h 0m 0s 30m 31s 15m 0s HR Department 27-May :35 AM 1d 7h 7m 52s 2d 8h 3m 59s 5m Customer Web Portal 27-May :41 PM 21h 3m 6s 21h 8m 5s 5m 38s 8m Service None None BI-Trends 28-May :59 AM 43m 9s 45m 0s 3m 28s 4m Intradoc Servers 28-May :16 AM 33m 6s 44m 0s 9m 58s 10m Purchasing 28-May :36 AM 3m 6s 2h 0m 0s 41s 1m Security Groups 28-May :30 AM 13m 55s 20m 0s 4m 47s 8m 15s User Authentication 28-May :33 AM 6m 56s 12m 0s 1m 8s 1h 0m HR Department 28-May :37 AM 2m 57s 5m 0s 1m 4s 5m 0s Test Lab 2 None None Service II 28-May :37 AM 2m 37s 10m 1m 4s 3m 0s Billing Cycles -- Weekly 27-May :53 PM 17h 53m 48s 24h 0m 0s 8m 35s 30m 0s CRM IV 27-May :52 AM 1d 10d 53m 50s 2d 8h 0m 0s 7m 22s 10m 30s Customer Web Portal 28-May :27 AM 13m 4s None 1m 0s None Auditory Servers 28-May :33 AM 7m 6s 12m 30s 1m 7s 20m 0s Service 28-May :34 AM 10h 6m 0s 12h om os 5m 20s 10m 20s Report 2 3. Disaster Recovery Listing: Virtual Machines & Tests This report delivers key information on virtual machine tests as a consolidated listing. Formatted as an Excel spreadsheet, the report lists every specification and the names of the Virtual Machines included in that specification. Tests created in ReliableDR to demonstrate that a virtual machine is recoverable and operational are listed for each machine. What you gain from this report: Assists you in creating specifications and tests for individual machines. Associates and helps verify the correct specifications with the right virtual machines. Demonstrates that specifications contain the right tests to ensure Recovery Time Objectives and Recovery Point Objectives are met. Provides a list that can be added to the Disaster Recovery Runbook to record all the VMs protected for a possible failover event. Granular reporting allows MSPs and CSPs to produce reports for end customers to document the protected virtual machines for that customer and the tests set up for each of the customer s virtual machines.

7 7 ReliableDR Disaster Recovery Report Disaster Recovery Listing: Virtual Machines and Tests Organization Name Job Name Virtual Machine Name Application Test Name World Banking Enterprise Customer Service Virtual Machine Application VM CS 1 Microsoft SQL Server Service World Banking Enterprise Banking Data Center Applications VM EMP 1 Microsoft DHCP Server World Banking Enterprise Banking Web site BWS Active Directory Domain Service World Banking Enterprise Banking Web Site BWS2 Active Directory Web Service World Banking Enterprise Banking Data Center Application Finance App 1 Microsoft DNS Server Service World Banking Enterprise Banking Data Center Application Finance App 2 MAT Test World Banking Enterprise Banking Data Center Application Finance App 3 Tranaction Test World Banking Enterprise Banking Data Center Application Finance App 4 Active Directory Topology World Banking Enterprise Banking Data Center Application Finance App 5 Anti-spam Update World Banking Enterprise Banking Data Center Application Finance App 6 Credential Service World Banking Enterprise Banking Data Center Application Finance App 7 Authentication Service World Banking Enterprise Banking Data Center Application Finance App 8 Forms-Based Authentication World Banking Enterprise Banking Data Center Application Finance App 9 End of Day Service World Banking Enterprise Banking Data Center Application Finance App 10 End of Month Service World Banking Enterprise Banking Data Center App 1 Mailbox Assistants World Banking Enterprise Banking Data Center App 2 Mailbox Assistants World Banking Enterprise Banking Data Center App 3 Mailbox Replication Service World Banking Enterprise Banking Data Center App 4 Mail Submission Service World Banking Enterprise Banking Data Center App 5 Monitoring World Banking Enterprise Banking Data Center App 6 POP3 World Banking Enterprise Banking Data Center Applications Banking App 1 Protected Service Host World Banking Enterprise Banking Data Center Applications Banking App 2 Replication Service World Banking Enterprise Banking Data Center Applications Banking App 3 Replication Service World Banking Enterprise Banking Data Center Applications Banking App 4 RPC Client Access World Banking Enterprise Banking Data Center Applications Banking App 5 System Attendant World Banking Enterprise Banking Data Center Applications Banking App 6 Search indexer World Banking Enterprise Banking Data Center Applications Banking App 7 Service Host World Banking Enterprise Banking Data Center Applications Banking App 8 Throttling World Banking Enterprise Finance Applications VM Fin 1 Test Run Finance World Banking Enterprise Test Lab VM Test Test Lab World Banking Enterprise Test Lab 2 VM Test 2 Test Lab Secondary Report 3

8 8 4. Job History Report Because ReliableDR delivers very low-cost, easy testing of Disaster Recovery plans, many IT administrators run ReliableDR tests as often as several times per day. Besides scheduled testing, the unexpected can occur and a ReliableDR certified virtual machine may be needed for failover. Failing over to a ReliableDR certified virtual machine can be used for recovery in a real disaster, and recovery points can also be used during a planned migration, a maintenance procedure, or a DR simulation. In many VMware environments, ReliableDR jobs are run at different intervals with different groups of applications and under different recovery policies. The job history report provides an important record of these exercises. Each Job History listing documents key information including: Recovery specification that was run User who requested the action Action type of the job, either a failover, a test or a discard of a failover usually for failback reasons Start and end time of the job Total time the job ran What you gain from this report: For organizations with audit or compliance requirements, this report documents both tests and failovers by date and can be filed for record-keeping purposes. Provides a record of failovers and failbacks for analysis, timing, tracking, budgeting, or IT service level records for those enterprises conducting these kinds of activities. For MSPs and CSPs providing Disaster Recovery services, this report can be provided to end customers as a means to record tests, failovers, and failbacks. Often the time and duration of failovers and failbacks are essential to maintaining and verifying Service Level Agreements with customers. Report 4

9 9 5. Disaster Recovery User Audit Report For organizations with strict security access regulations, this audit report documents every user s activities such as the creation, edit, or deletion of recovery specifications. Because ReliableDR offers rolebased security by organization, this report shows every action by any user of the ReliableDR software, including the user set as administrator and other users that may have rights to perform ReliableDR activities. What you gain from this report: The User Audit Report documents who did what when and is especially helpful when multiple organizations and users have access to the ReliableDR software. For MSPs and DR hosting services, this report can be sent to end customers to document that change requests are fulfilled and to demonstrate that security policies on access and edit permissions are being met. Provides security reports on login times and user access when needed. Report 5 Gain the value and confidence in your DR Plans you ve been looking for Unitrends provides the absolute best value in virtual backup, disaster recovery assurance, and monitoring for VMware, Citrix and cloud environments. More than 6,000 customers worldwide rely on our products because they are effective, easier to use and far more affordable than competitive alternatives. Delivering the highest performance and most scalable cross platform backup and disaster recovery solutions on the market and

10 10 pioneer of Virtual Backup Appliances (VBAs), Unitrends has been transforming data protection for virtual IT environments since About Unitrends Unitrends delivers award-winning business recovery solutions for any IT environment. The company s portfolio of virtual, physical and cloud solutions provides adaptive protection for organizations globally. To address the complexities facing today s modern data center, Unitrends delivers end-to-end protection and instant recovery of all virtual and physical assets as well as automated disaster recovery testing built for virtualization. With the industry s lowest total cost of ownership, Unitrends offerings are backed by a customer support team that consistently achieves a 98 percent satisfaction rating. Visit. Ready to see Unitrends in action? Watch us crash a server and restore it: /product-demo