Assured Recovery Testing › Perform an Assured Recovery Test

Perform an Assured Recovery Test

The Assured Recovery test can be fully automated and performed on a scheduled basis as often as needed. Upon completion, appropriate personnel can be alerted with the status of the test, and additional actions can be triggered on success, for example, taking a VSS snapshot of the data or a running a backup. Alternatively, you can perform AR testing in non-scheduled mode, automatically or manually initiating the test whenever the need arises.

In both modes, the AR test is performed in steps, according to the AR configuration settings. Some of the steps are transparent, and are executed automatically whenever an AR test is performed. Other steps are visible, and can be configured as to whether and how they will be performed.

The standard steps are as follows:

1. Initiate Assured Recovery test - click the Replica Integrity Testing button on the toolbar to initiate the AR test on a scheduled basis or in a non-scheduled mode.
2. Suspend application of data changes on the tested Replica - this step is performed automatically at the beginning of each AR test.
3. Initiate a rewind component on the tested Replica - this step is performed automatically. It is aimed at capturing all the changes that are made to the Replica data during the test, so they can be later rewind back to the point when the replication was suspended.
4. Start the database services - by default, this step is performed automatically. However, it can be switched off, replaced, or followed by a user-defined script.
5. Test the database - the databases are verified, by default, using the same tests that are used to monitor the database in HA. These tests include verifying that all services have correctly started and that all databases have been successfully mounted. These tests can be switched off, replaced, or followed by a user-defined script.
6. Perform actions upon successful test while the database services are running - a user-defined script may be registered at this point to perform actions that are desired in the event of a successful test, but which also require that the application will be running.
7. Stop the database services - by default, this step is performed automatically. However, it can be switched off, replaced, or followed by a user-defined script.

   Perform additional actions upon successful test while the database services are stopped - this step is optional, and it may be used to perform actions that take advantage of the fact that the application passed validation tests and that it was stopped in a systematic order.

8. Rewind AR Replica data and resuming replication - this step is performed automatically at the end of each AR test. It restores the Replica data to precisely the state it was before the test begun using the rewind technology. Then, it resumes replication.