Critical systems
The primary database disappears
The application cannot reach its primary data store. Rehearse recovery assumptions, business continuity and verification before failover.
20 minutes suggested · Four incident updates · One shared screen
Start this rehearsal →Watch the quick field guide
24-second visual guide · captions and transcript · no autoplay
Read the guidance transcript
Name what is affected. Read the fictional alert. Identify the business impact and what is still unknown; avoid jumping to a diagnosis.
Pick the next move. Compare recovery and communication options. Each choice changes the exercise narrative, not a real system.
Keep the room aligned. Use the timeline and decision log to agree one coordinator, one update and the next checkpoint.
Close the loop. Capture recovery assumptions and assign follow-up actions. Export the report so the learning outlives the meeting.
Who should be in the room?
Facilitator, Incident lead, Database owner, Operations lead. These are discussion roles, not account invitations. One person records while the team talks.
What the team will practice
The service starts returning errors
The failure’s scope, cause and recovery point are unknown.
Discussion: Who coordinates the response and what must be established before failover?
The recovery clock is questioned
A successful backup job is not proof of usable restoration or an acceptable recovery point.
Discussion: What evidence determines the recovery route and business trade-off?
A manual workaround appears
Temporary work creates reconciliation and communication obligations.
Discussion: Who approves the workaround and records what will need reconciliation?
A test restore is available
The first green test does not establish full data integrity.
Discussion: What sign-off, monitoring and follow-up are needed to declare recovery?
What you’ll leave with
Your own recorded decisions, uncertainties and improvement actions with owners, dates and status. Print a readable report or export a browser-local session to revisit.
Original fictional content, not a technical response procedure. No real systems are changed. This exercise does not certify security readiness or compliance.
Read the facilitator guide →