Disaster Recovery Scenarios for DevOps Engineers

Follow these steps for help to build a comprehensive DevOps disaster recovery foundation:

1) Map critical assets and dependencies.
• Document all code repositories, build systems, and deployment pipelines.
• Identify dependencies between systems and data flows.
• Categorize assets by business impact and recovery priority.

2) Establish recovery objectives.
• Define recovery time objectives for each system.
• Set recovery point objectives based on acceptable data loss.
• Align objectives with business requirements and SLAs.

3) Design recovery automation.
• Create infrastructure as code templates for critical environments.
• Develop automated restore procedures for databases and stateful systems.
• Implement pipeline-based recovery testing.

4) Implement protection mechanisms.
• Deploy immutable backup solutions for code and configuration.
• Establish air-gapped storage for critical recovery assets.
• Configure monitoring and alerting for recovery systems.

5) Test and validate.
• Schedule regular recovery simulations across environments.
• Conduct tabletop exercises with cross-functional teams.
• Document lessons learned and improvement opportunities.

DevOps environments face a unique confluence of threats requiring comprehensive resilience planning. Ransomware specifically targeting development infrastructure has emerged as a critical concern, with attackers recognizing the value of source code and build systems.

Hardware failures, though less dramatic, remain a persistent risk, particularly in hybrid environments spanning on-premises and cloud resources. Data corruption during rapid development cycles can propagate through automated pipelines, amplifying the impact.

A thoroughly tested recovery plan delivers benefits beyond simple restoration capabilities.

• Regular recovery testing validates business continuity assumptions and identifies gaps before real disasters expose them.

• Compliance requirements become addressable through documented, repeatable recovery processes rather than manual, error-prone procedures.

• Cross-team coordination improves as recovery roles and responsibilities become clearly defined.

• Frequent backups combined with real-time monitoring create the foundation for achieving aggressive recovery objectives.

• Immutable backups capture point-in-time states of critical systems, helping prevent tampering and corruption.

• Regular monitoring detects anomalies that might indicate emerging threats, allowing preemptive action before full recovery becomes necessary.

Together, these capabilities transform disaster recovery from a reactive process to a proactive resilience strategy.

DevOps teams face multiple threat vectors requiring specific recovery approaches.

• Cloud service outages can disrupt development workflows and production environments simultaneously.

• Ransomware attacks target valuable intellectual property in code repositories.

• Accidental deletions during rapid development cycles create data loss risks.

• Misconfigurations in complex infrastructure can cascade into system-wide failures.

Let’s walk through a couple of scenarios and how DevOps teams can overcome them.

Cloud service disruptions directly impact DevOps productivity and system availability. When platforms like Azure DevOps, GitHub, or AWS CodeBuild experience outages, development pipelines grind to a halt. Teams lose access to source code, build environments, and deployment capabilities simultaneously. Production environments dependent on cloud services may also degrade or fail completely.

Recovery requires rapid restoration to alternate locations:

• Implement cross-region or cross-cloud backup strategies for critical repositories.

• Maintain secondary pipeline configurations ready for activation.

• Practice recovery to alternate environments quarterly.

• Document manual processes for critical functions during extended outages.

Ransomware targeting DevOps environments creates particularly devastating impacts. Attackers increasingly target code repositories and build environments, recognizing their value to organizations. Encrypted source code, compromised build systems, and tampered artifacts can halt development and potentially introduce backdoors into production systems.

Protection requires a multi-layered approach:

• Deploy immutable backups that protect against modification even with administrative credentials.

• Implement point-in-time restore capabilities for repositories and configuration.

• Establish air-gapped storage for critical recovery assets.

• Create cryptographic verification for build artifacts to detect tampering.

Human error remains among the most common causes of data loss in DevOps environments. Accidental repository deletion, overwritten configuration, or dropped database tables occur with alarming frequency during rapid development cycles. The automation that makes DevOps powerful also can amplify the impact of mistakes, propagating errors through connected systems.

Fast recovery depends on granular restoration options:

• Implement self-service recovery portals for developers.

• Configure automated retention policies for critical systems.

• Deploy object-level recovery capabilities for databases and repositories.

• Create automated validation testing for restored assets.

Hardware failures, VM crashes, and network disruptions create complex recovery scenarios in hybrid environments. Container hosts may fail while workloads are running, storage systems can become corrupted, and networking issues can isolate critical components. The complexity of modern infrastructure makes identifying the root cause challenging during outages.

Effective recovery strategies include:

• Deploy cross-region failover automation for critical systems.

• Implement infrastructure as code for consistent environment recreation.

• Configure automated health checks and self-healing capabilities.

• Maintain current documentation of infrastructure dependencies.

Regulatory investigations and security audits often require point-in-time recovery of specific data. Organizations may need to reproduce the exact state of systems as they existed weeks or months earlier. This scenario demands specialized recovery capabilities beyond typical disaster restoration.

Compliance-focused recovery requires:

• Implement retention policies aligned with regulatory requirements.

• Deploy tamper-proof audit trails for all recovery actions.

• Create specialized recovery workflows for compliance scenarios.

• Document chain of custody procedures for recovered data.

Commvault’s platform integrates with DevOps workflows through robust APIs and automation capabilities. Our solutions complement the DevOps philosophy by treating backup and recovery as code, enabling teams to integrate protection directly into their CI/CD pipelines. This approach minimizes protection gaps while maintaining the velocity that makes DevOps valuable.

Key Commvault capabilities supporting DevOps disaster recovery include:

Internal policy-based protection automatically discovering and securing new workloads as they’re deployed.

• Granular recovery options for databases, containers, and repositories.

• Comprehensive coverage across on-premises, cloud, and SaaS environments.

• Immutable storage integration helping prevent unauthorized deletion.

• Automated testing and validation of recovery readiness.

Our platform provides the flexibility DevOps teams need while delivering the enterprise-grade protection that security teams demand. By bridging these traditionally separate domains, Commvault helps enable resilience without compromising innovation speed.

Request a demo to learn how we can help you build a more resilient DevOps environment.