IT KORR Knowledge Center

Recovery Runbook Template

Name: IT KORR
Price range: $$

A step-by-step technical runbook structure for recovering a specific system, from pre-recovery checks through verification and rollback.

System Overview & Dependencies

System name, owner, and business function(s) it supports.
Hosting location and environment (on-prem, cloud provider/region, SaaS).
Upstream and downstream dependencies (e.g., requires database and DNS to be available first; downstream systems that depend on this one).
Defined RPO and RTO for this specific system.

Confirm the scope and cause of the outage before beginning recovery, where known.
Confirm dependency systems (network, DNS, authentication, database) are available or being recovered in parallel.
Confirm access to required credentials, consoles, and the most recent known-good backup or snapshot.
Notify the IT Recovery Lead that recovery of this system is starting.

Step 1 — Identify the most recent valid backup or snapshot and confirm its timestamp against the RPO.
Step 2 — Provision or confirm availability of target infrastructure (server, instance, or container) to restore onto.
Step 3 — Restore data/configuration from the identified backup to the target infrastructure.
Step 4 — Restart or bring the application/service online on the restored infrastructure.
Step 5 — Redirect traffic/DNS/load balancer configuration to the recovered system if it is running on new infrastructure.
Step 6 — Confirm the system is reachable on its expected endpoint before proceeding to verification.

Confirm the application starts without error and core functionality responds as expected.
Run a defined smoke test (e.g., login, key transaction, data read/write) to confirm functional recovery, not just uptime.
Compare restored data against the expected recovery point to confirm data integrity.
Confirm downstream/dependent systems can successfully connect to the recovered system.

Define the condition that triggers a rollback (e.g., verification fails, data corruption detected, unacceptable performance).
Preserve the failed recovery attempt's state/logs before rolling back, to support root-cause analysis.
Revert traffic/DNS/load balancer configuration back to the prior known-good state, if applicable.
Escalate to the IT Recovery Lead immediately if rollback is required — do not silently retry indefinitely.

System owner — primary and backup contact.
IT Recovery Lead — primary and backup contact.
Relevant vendor/support contact for the system or hosting provider, including support tier/contract reference.
Escalation path and maximum wait time before moving to the next contact.

Disaster Recovery Planning — /knowledge-center/business-continuity/business-continuity-disaster-recovery/disaster-recovery-planning
High Availability vs. Disaster Recovery — /knowledge-center/business-continuity/business-continuity-disaster-recovery/high-availability-vs-disaster-recovery