Why Should I Test DRaaS?
At Servosity we believe that the best DR (Disaster Recovery) backup is a tested backup.We work with you, as your Partner, to fix anything that may go wrong before a disaster strikes. Think of this as a recovery fire drill. We hope everything runs smoothly but, we want to make sure we know what we need to work out before anything disaterous does happens.
What is Servosity’s Process in a DRaaS Test?
The end goal for us, is to get the Servers booted and make sure they’re accessible. For each DRaaS test (Disaster Recovery as a Service), we restore that company's machines from the cloud-based backup data to AWS VMs (known as instances) which you can access. After restoring those machines, we confirm they have booted to a Windows login screen and are accessible from the internet (or specified IP addresses) via RDP. We can also provide a software VPN connection on request. Following that, we hand the environment over to you to test any necessary applications or services. Once you're done, just let us know and we'll clean up the test environment and get it ready for future use.
What is Needed from you as our Partner to support the Company’s DRaaS test?
Our knowledge of the company’s environment is limited. We do not know which services or applications should start, and we do not login to the server. For this reason, please keep in mind that getting everything running in the cloud may need your support and troubleshooting expertise. Your availability should be considered when you are ready to schedule. Here are some examples of what you can expect from us and what may be needed from you during a DRaaS test:
- The cloud environment is our responsibility and we will take care of troubleshooting the environment when needed.
- If the system fails to boot, we’ll do our best to resolve any issues related to the cloud hardware on our own. We may determine there is an issue with the source machine, and if so we will work with your team to troubleshoot that system and reschedule the test.
- Any issues with a booted instance is beyond our ability to troubleshoot and resolve. If you need to have any network or instance modifications made to resolve the issue, our team will gladly help with that.
Who is Eligible for free DRaaS Testing and how long is the test?
Every Gold/Simplified Company with DR accounts (that is a supported OS) is allotted one DRaaS test ranging up to 4 free hours per quarter (3 calendar months). We provide this test for free, for 4 hours under the expectation that some (if not all) of this time will be used to troubleshoot any issues that may arise. In a perfect world, everything will go smoothly and there will be no issues to troubleshoot but, this is exactly why we test and dedicate these 4 hours to you to do so. For this reason, it is possible that in these 4 hours that the environment will not be fully functional. We are also limited by the maximum size of volumes in AWS, so we cannot spin up a company with a total size of larger than 50TB. Please keep in mind that we are testing to discover what problems there may be and how to solve them before there is a true disaster.
How does Servosity schedule DRaaS testing?
Our team does a lot of behind the scenes tech magic for your DRaaS test. We want to ensure that each test and company is getting the time and attention that it deserves. Due to this, we ask our Partners to schedule at least 2 weeks in advance. You can schedule with us here and we will reach out to confirm.
What if the DRaaS test needs to be canceled or rescheduled?
We try to be as flexible as possible when rescheduling DRaaS tests however, there is a certain amount of cost that goes into the preparation and storing of the data and instances in the AWS cloud. Because of this we need to set the following guidelines around rescheduling and canceling DRaaS tests.
- In order to keep a company eligible for testing, any cancellation will need to be made at least one calendar week from the scheduled test.
- Reschedules can be made 1 calendar day before the scheduled test for up to 2 business days after the scheduled test at no additional cost. We are not able to accommodate any requests to begin a test earlier than scheduled.
- If you need to reschedule more than 2 days past your originally scheduled date, you will be billed the standby pricing listed on our DRaaS Pricing Page. Billing will be calculated by the number of hours between the originally scheduled time and the rescheduled time.
- Your 4 hours for testing remain free. You do have the option to extend your test, in which case you will be billed the Running Price. The pricing can be found on our DRaaS Pricing Page.
- We may reschedule if there is a problem with booting the Virtual Machine or configuring the network.
- Once an instance is running, the test cannot be rescheduled.
Are there any size limitations?
In the event of an emergency, we are able to provide an instance (a server resource provided by cloud-services) at any requested size. For testing purposes, we will pick an instance that matches or exceeds the source machine’s CPU cores or RAM (whichever is higher), up to 16 cores or 64GB of RAM. If your source machine has higher resources than what we are able to match for the test, you can expect the instance to be less performant with the same configurations.
You are able to upgrade your instance to have more optimal resources upon request. You can determine this upgraded instance runtime fee by viewing the rate detailed on our DRaaS Pricing Page.
Do I have to spin-up all volumes or systems for each test?
No, you have the ability to choose which systems and volumes you would like tested. However, we only allow one company per 3 calendar months regardless of how many servers you choose to run for this test. If you choose not to run all of the servers for this test, the remaining servers will not be eligible for a free test until the next year. Please make sure that you are spinning up a domain controller with each test if you do not have local user accounts on the other systems.
If you have any questions about our DRaaS Policy, please feel free to contact us at Support@Servosity.com and we will do our best to clarify or answer any questions!