Disaster Recovery Runbook
⚠ CRITICAL DOCUMENT
This runbook contains procedures for recovering SAP systems in a disaster scenario. Keep this document accessible and up-to-date. Review and test annually.
1. Document Control
| Document Version |
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| Last Updated |
|
| Updated By |
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| Next Review Date |
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| Last Test Date |
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| Test Result |
☐ Successful ☐ Partial ☐ Failed ☐ Not Tested |
2. Recovery Objectives
| System |
Criticality |
RPO |
RTO |
| PRD (Production) |
Critical |
|
|
| QAS (Quality Assurance) |
Important |
|
|
| DEV (Development) |
Standard |
|
|
RPO (Recovery Point Objective): Maximum acceptable data loss
RTO (Recovery Time Objective): Maximum acceptable downtime
3. Emergency Contact List
| Role |
Name |
Primary Phone |
Alternate Phone |
Email |
| Incident Commander |
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| SAP Basis Lead |
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| Database Administrator |
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| Infrastructure Lead |
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| Network Administrator |
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| Business Sponsor |
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| Communications Lead |
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Vendor Contacts
| Vendor |
Service |
Contact |
Phone |
Support Portal |
| SAP |
Application Support |
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| Database Vendor |
Database Support |
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| Infrastructure Provider |
Hardware/Cloud |
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|
4. Disaster Scenarios
This runbook covers the following disaster scenarios:
- Scenario 1: Complete site failure (datacenter outage)
- Scenario 2: Server hardware failure
- Scenario 3: Storage failure or data corruption
- Scenario 4: Ransomware or cyber attack
- Scenario 5: Network connectivity failure
- Scenario 6: Application corruption requiring restore
5. System Dependencies
| SAP System |
Dependencies |
Recovery Sequence |
| Production SAP |
- Database server
- Storage subsystem
- Network connectivity
- Active Directory
- _______________
|
Priority 1 |
| Interfaces |
- _______________
- _______________
|
Priority 2 |
6. Backup Information
| Backup Type |
☐ Daily Full ☐ Full + Incremental ☐ Other: _______________ |
| Backup Schedule |
Daily at _______________ (time zone: _______________) |
| Backup Tool |
_______________ (e.g., BR*Tools, native DB backup, third-party) |
| Backup Location |
Primary: _______________
Off-site: _______________
|
| Retention Period |
Daily: _____ days
Weekly: _____ weeks
Monthly: _____ months
|
| Backup Catalog Location |
_______________ |
7. Recovery Procedures
7.1 Initial Assessment
Step 1: Declare disaster and activate incident commander
Actions:
- Contact incident commander via phone
- Describe the situation and impact
- Document time of disaster declaration: _______________
Step 2: Assemble recovery team
Actions:
- Incident commander contacts all team members from contact list
- Establish conference bridge: _______________
- Set up status communication channel (email/Slack/Teams)
Step 3: Assess situation and determine recovery strategy
Actions:
- Identify which scenario applies (see Section 4)
- Determine extent of damage or data loss
- Identify last known good backup
- Estimate recovery time based on RTO targets
- Make go/no-go decision on DR activation
7.2 Infrastructure Recovery
Step 4: Prepare recovery infrastructure
Actions:
- If using DR site: Power on and verify infrastructure
- If rebuilding: Provision servers per specifications below
- Verify network connectivity and firewall rules
- Verify storage capacity availability
Server Specifications:
| Component |
Specification |
| Application Server |
CPU: _____ Memory: _____ Storage: _____ |
| Database Server |
CPU: _____ Memory: _____ Storage: _____ |
7.3 Database Recovery
Step 5: Restore database
Actions:
- Locate most recent full backup
- Verify backup integrity
- Restore database using: _______________ (command/tool)
- Apply log files if available to minimize data loss
- Verify database consistency
Database Restore Commands:
_________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
Expected Duration: _____ hours
7.4 SAP Application Recovery
Step 6: Recover SAP application layer
Actions:
- Update SAP profiles with current hostnames/IP addresses
- Update database connection parameters
- Start SAP instances in order: CI → Dialog → Batch
- Verify instance startup (sapcontrol -nr XX -function GetProcessList)
- Check system log (SM21) for errors
SAP Start Commands:
startsap r3
(or specific commands for your environment)
7.5 Validation
Step 7: Validate system functionality
Actions:
- Test user login (transaction SU01)
- Test critical transactions: _______________
- Verify batch job scheduling
- Test interface connectivity
- Run consistency checks (transaction DBACOCKPIT)
- Generate test transaction to confirm write capability
Critical Transactions to Test:
- _______________ (e.g., VA01 - Create Sales Order)
- _______________ (e.g., ME21N - Create Purchase Order)
- _______________
- _______________
7.6 Business Validation
Step 8: Business acceptance testing
Actions:
- Contact business process owners
- Conduct User Acceptance Testing (UAT)
- Verify data accuracy for critical business objects
- Confirm acceptable data loss window
- Obtain business sign-off to resume operations
7.7 Restore Operations
Step 9: Resume normal operations
Actions:
- Re-enable batch jobs
- Re-enable interfaces
- Notify all users that system is available
- Monitor system performance and logs closely
- Document actual recovery time achieved
8. Post-Recovery Activities
Immediate (Within 24 hours)
- Conduct hot wash meeting with recovery team
- Document what happened and recovery actions taken
- Identify any procedure gaps or issues
- Ensure backup jobs are running successfully
Short-term (Within 1 week)
- Prepare incident report for management
- Conduct root cause analysis if applicable
- Update DR runbook with lessons learned
- Brief all stakeholders on recovery outcome
Long-term (Within 1 month)
- Implement corrective actions from RCA
- Review and update RPO/RTO targets if needed
- Update disaster recovery strategy if warranted
- Schedule follow-up DR test
9. Recovery Checklist
| Step |
Action |
Owner |
Start Time |
End Time |
Status |
| 1 |
Declare disaster |
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☐ |
| 2 |
Assemble team |
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☐ |
| 3 |
Assess situation |
|
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☐ |
| 4 |
Prepare infrastructure |
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☐ |
| 5 |
Restore database |
|
|
|
☐ |
| 6 |
Recover SAP application |
|
|
|
☐ |
| 7 |
Validate system |
|
|
|
☐ |
| 8 |
Business validation |
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☐ |
| 9 |
Resume operations |
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|
☐ |
Total Recovery Time: _____ hours (Target RTO: _____ hours)
Remova Inc. | www.removateam.org | notifications@removateam.org
This template is provided as a guide. Customize with your specific system details, commands, and procedures.