Group
  • Database

    Write a database disaster recovery plan

    Documents exactly what to do when the database is lost or corrupted, with timed restore drills and clear recovery targets.

    • Plan & validate
    • Intermediate
    • General

Free Prompt

Write my database disaster recovery plan and then run one drill to validate it. Assume the scenario: the primary database is gone or corrupted beyond trust, right now. Document: where backups live and who can access them (including whether access survives the hosting account being locked out); the exact step-by-step restore procedure, written for someone tired and stressed, with the actual commands and where to run them; the recovery point objective (how much data loss is acceptable: last hour, last day) and recovery time objective (how long the app can be down), with the current backup setup measured against both; and the order of operations after restore: what gets verified before traffic returns (row counts, spot-check recent orders, run the app's critical paths). Then run the drill: restore the latest backup to a scratch environment, time it, verify the data, and write down what actually happened versus the plan. Fix the plan where reality disagreed. Don't test restores against production. Don't assume managed-host point-in-time recovery works; verify it once. Deliver: the runbook, the drill results with timings, the gap list (where current setup misses the stated objectives), and the changes applied to close the gaps.

What This Does / How This Helps

Produces the actual document you reach for when the database dies: where the backups are, the exact restore steps, and what to verify before reopening, validated by a timed drill. Recovery plans that exist only in someone's head fail at the moment they're needed, because that person is panicking and the details were never written down. The drill is what separates a plan from a document: you learn the restore takes 40 minutes, not the 5 you assumed, and you learn it today. The objectives matter too: stating 'we can lose an hour of data and be down for two' turns backup configuration from a guess into a decision.

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