IT Disaster Recovery and Resilience Flashcards
6 cards from real DRI practice questions. Tap to flip, then mark Knew It or Still Learning — missed cards come back until you master them.
Read the first 6 IT Disaster Recovery and Resilience flashcards as text
What is 'chaos engineering' and how does it relate to IT resilience?
Answer: A disciplined practice of intentionally introducing failures into production systems to verify that resilience controls work as designed
Chaos engineering is a disciplined practice—pioneered by Netflix's Chaos Monkey—of deliberately introducing controlled failures into production systems to verify that resilience controls, redundancy, and monitoring work as designed under real conditions.
In IT disaster recovery, what is a 'runbook' and why is it essential?
Answer: A detailed, step-by-step technical procedure guide for executing specific IT recovery tasks
A runbook is a detailed, step-by-step technical guide documenting exactly how to execute a specific IT recovery task—server failover, database restoration, network reconfiguration—providing sufficient detail for a qualified technician to execute the procedure correctly under stress.
What is a 'network recovery time' consideration that is distinct from server or application recovery time?
Answer: The time required to reroute network traffic, update DNS records, and configure connectivity to the recovery environment
Network recovery—rerouting traffic, updating DNS, configuring VPNs, adjusting firewall rules for the recovery environment—is a distinct and often underestimated component of total recovery time that must be planned and tested separately from server and application recovery.
Which concept describes the practice of testing IT DR procedures without interrupting production operations?
Answer: Non-disruptive testing or simulation testing
Non-disruptive (simulation) testing validates DR procedures and recovery capabilities without interrupting production operations—isolating the test environment from production to prevent the test itself from causing an outage.
Why is 'data classification' important for IT disaster recovery planning?
Answer: It enables organizations to apply appropriate recovery priorities, RPOs, and backup frequencies based on data criticality and sensitivity
Data classification enables organizations to apply recovery priorities, RPOs, backup frequencies, and protection levels that are proportionate to each data type's criticality and sensitivity—preventing both under-protection of critical data and over-investment in protecting trivial data.
What is 'mean time to recover (MTTR)' and how does it differ from the Recovery Time Objective (RTO)?
Answer: RTO is the maximum acceptable recovery time set by the business; MTTR is the statistical average of actual recovery times measured over multiple events
RTO is the business requirement—the maximum acceptable recovery time. MTTR is a statistical measure of actual performance—the average time taken to recover across multiple failures or tests. MTTR must consistently beat RTO to demonstrate adequate recovery capability.