David, you speak my language Sir. Fantastic, you have hit so many of my trigger points that I too see as so important for DR (failback, ongoing backup, the multiple methods).

Okay, lets start creating an outline, Just cut and past adding, removing and re-sequencing. Getting a good outline will make the document flow well and we can then attack parts to flesh out. If we use the # number outlining, put the title and and detail in brackets.

1. Overview and background

1. What is BC and DR

2. What is RTO and RPO

3. Types of disaster

1. Site

2. Service

3. Hardware

4. Software

4. A framework for understanding DR (I have a diagram for this)

5. Moving data (same format for each, a short description, pro/con, examples/vendors with links)

1. Application based replication (eg DataGuard for Oracle)

2. Host based replication (eg DT)

3. VMware based replication (eg vReplicator)

4. Fabric based (eg FalconStor, RecoverPoint)

5. SAN based (eg MirrorView, TrueCopy)

6. Backup (DataDomain, replicated VTL or plain old tape!)

6. Failover techniques

1. Manual

2. SRM

3. Clusters

7. Storage considerations

1. General?

2. Protection Groups

8. Networking considerations

1. LAN

2. WAN

9. Failback

10. Recovery testing

11. Other considerations (backup, archival)

2. Specific application or service requirements

1. VMware

2. AD

3. Exchange?

3. Planning your DR

1. Inputs

2. The planning process

3. Outputs

4. Next steps

4. Resources

I think the first section of Overview and background is easy to achieve. If we get that list well locked down we can then mark it up into the doco and draft all of the content. This may be phase 1.

We can break out into a separate phase (2) the "Planning your DR" which is where we detail the issue of "Okay, given that bit of education, how do you actually plan or put together a strategy, every solution and requirement is different, so we are not going to tell you what to do, but we want to steer or guide people through the process of coming up with a plan, high level design.

The first bit is easy, the second bit will require some thinking to keep it simple, generic and something people can understand.

We also need to consider the other document in the blue print which is the actual DR design or plan, this is just the workshop, its working towards the next step so we should have that it view.

Really keen to hear peoples thoughts. Are we on the right track?

Take that list and add/modify. Maybe use colours and strike through to highlight changes.

Rodos

Just before SRM was released VMware put out a DR cookbook or whitepaper that had a lot of stuff in it. Anyone remember where it is, can we grab a link for the resource listing.

Anyone want to review it and see if their is any good content or some ideas to add into our overview?

Rodos