Backup and DR Readiness Checklist

Checklist discipline. Every item is meant to be answered yes / no with evidence. Items marked critical are non-negotiable; items marked warn are judgement calls; items marked info are baseline expectations.

Items

• Configuration saved with ‘save’ (severity: critical)
• Configuration pushed to remote backup (encrypted, offsite) (severity: critical)
• Configuration includes all routing-protocol credentials (severity: critical)
• Restore tested on a scratch router (severity: warn)
• Restore tested on different hardware (interface mapping) (severity: warn)
• Restore tested with different VyOS version (rollback) (severity: warn)
• VPN keys / certificates backed up separately and securely (severity: critical)
• DR runbook current and tested (severity: info)
• DR exercise scheduled quarterly (severity: info)
• RPO and RTO documented for the routing estate (severity: info)

Severity legend

• info: baseline expectation
• warn: judgement call; production-grade depends on context
• critical: non-negotiable; a missed critical item is a release blocker

Evidence retention

The completed checklist is evidence for the change ticket, the audit, and the post-incident review. Store it where it can be recovered if the router is lost.