DR Documentation Essentials for Business Continuity

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Disaster recovery (DR) documentation encompasses restoring systems and proving you can do it consistently and within defined timeframes. For many teams, that’s where things break down. 

You might have the technical expertise to bring a site back online in minutes, but when asked for exact procedures – clear, defensible proof that your process works – there’s a gap.

This guide is here to help you close that gap. Using Pantheon’s disaster recovery planning framework as a foundation, you’ll learn how to capture and organize the recovery evidence you already generate.

And if you're actually running on Pantheon, you're already capturing much of what you need. Your WebOps workflows, automated backups and environment-specific tooling generate the artifacts that make your playbook credible. You just need to structure and present them the right way, so let’s get started.

What makes DR documentation defensible, not theoretical

A DR playbook is a formal set of procedures that enables your organization to reliably and repeatedly  restore critical systems within a specific timeframe, using defined tools and processes. 

It’s important because auditors, stakeholders and internal teams are not looking for possibilities when disaster hits – they need proof that everything is in place for smooth recovery.

This documentation must be built on evidence that includes successful restore operations, backed by logs, screenshots, timestamps and recovery metrics. It should describe what to do and show that it has been done recently, successfully and under conditions that match your actual infrastructure.

An effective DR documentation should speak to three distinct audiences at once:

• Technical teams need precise, actionable steps they can follow in a high-pressure situation. 
• Auditors need to see that procedures are tested, repeatable and measurable. 
• Future staff need context on why certain choices were made and how those decisions map to real platform behavior.

Also, the DR documentation must reflect the recovery capabilities of the plan you’re actually using – not assumptions, aspirations or vendor marketing.

For example, Pantheon Elite with Multizone Failover supports a 5-minute recovery point objective (RPO) and 15-minute recovery time objective (RTO), backed by a 99.99% uptime SLA. It includes automatic infrastructure failover and 24/7 disaster response support.

Standard Pantheon plans rely on daily backups with a 24-hour RPO and emergency ticket support. Failover is manual and customer-initiated.

If your documentation claims rapid failover but you’re on a plan without it, auditors will see that gap immediately. So, build an evidence framework that works. Start by aligning each documented procedure with real evidence. Combine three layers:

• Automated evidence, such as Pantheon backup logs, Git commit history and audit trails.
• Manual proof, including screenshots of restore steps, test results and response times.
• Ongoing validation, such as New Relic performance baselines or synthetic transaction monitoring.

This combination creates documentation that goes beyond theory. It shows that your recovery processes are active, tested and working as designed.

Building your evidence-based DR documentation

Use Pantheon’s DR guide as your framework

Start with Pantheon’s disaster recovery planning guide as your foundation. It outlines key planning elements like escalation procedures, platform capabilities and recovery workflows. From there, build specific documentation around the features you use – automated backups, multizone failover (if you’re on Elite), support ticket processes and escalation paths.

Also, attach real artifacts to every step by including screenshots from your Pantheon dashboard, backup ID references and timestamps from recent tests.

What should DR documentation include?

There are five core elements that every DR playbook should contain:

1. Recovery procedures, with clear, step-by-step instructions and screenshots from your actual dashboard or CLI output.
2. Escalation paths and contact lists, including internal roles and support tier details.
3. System dependencies, mapped to platform features such as Redis, Solr or third-party integrations.
4. Recovery metrics, tied to your actual SLA (e.g., RPO/RTO based on your platform tier).
5. Test records, including logs, screenshots and outcome summaries from real restore operations.

If your documentation includes all five, with supporting evidence, you’re in a strong position for both audits and operational readiness.

Automate evidence collection through WebOps

Pantheon’s WebOps platform already produces much of the evidence you need for your DR document. All you have to do is use it:

• Schedule Terminus commands to output and store backup reports regularly.
• Use the Pantheon API to export audit logs on a monthly basis.
• Automatically capture New Relic APM baselines for before-and-after comparisons.
• Use Multidev environments to test recovery procedures without touching production.
• Reference your Git history to show when procedures or configurations were updated.

This turns daily operational workflows into continuous playbook inputs, reducing the manual overhead of DR compliance.

Map escalation paths to your support tier

Escalation procedures should reflect the actual level of support available to you. For example:

• Elite plans include 24/7 disaster response teams, managed failover testing and direct Slack channels with Pantheon engineers.
• Standard plans rely on emergency support tickets and are backed by daily backups.

Document which types of incidents require internal response vs. platform support. Include named contacts, support ticket templates and links to internal or vendor escalation policies. Make sure these are tested at least quarterly to ensure accuracy.

Use version control

Store your DR documentation in Git alongside your codebase. This gives you:

• Change history, to show auditors when and how procedures were updated.
• Traceability, to investigate why a step may have failed during recovery.
• Accountability, as each change is tied to a specific contributor and timestamp.

After every incident or test, update the relevant documentation. For instance, if Redis took longer to rebuild than expected, note it. If Solr required manual provisioning, document the steps. The sooner procedures are revised, the more useful and accurate they remain.

Testing documentation before disasters test you

Disaster recovery documentation is only as strong as its last successful test. Without regular validation, procedures become outdated, assumptions go unchecked and gaps remain hidden until an actual incident exposes them.

There are two primary testing methods for DR documentation that every organization should use:

• Tabletop exercises (quarterly): Teams walk through recovery steps without executing them. This validates the clarity, accuracy and completeness of the playbook. It's especially useful for verifying roles, communication flows and decision-making points.
• Full recovery drills (annually): These simulate actual failures. Restore a live backup to a Multidev or lower environment. Time how long it takes. Compare results against your documented RTO and RPO. Capture every step and outcome in detail.

You shouldn’t wait a full year between tests to avoid unexpected surprises. Instead, embed smaller tests into your monthly operations:

• Restore a recent backup to Dev or a Multidev environment.
• Time a Redis rebuild after a cache flush.
• Confirm escalation contacts are still valid.
• Review Git logs to ensure playbook changes are up to date.

For Standard plans, expect 30 to 60 minute restore times depending on site size. Elite plans can request managed failover tests through Pantheon support for more controlled validation.

Not to mention, Auditors don’t just want to know that you tested recovery – they want to see how. Make sure every test includes:

• Screenshots of the dashboard before and after restoration.
• Backup ID numbers used in the recovery process.
• Exact restoration durations, measured against your plan’s RTO.
• Notes on platform-specific behaviors, like Redis flushes or Solr manual steps.

It’s also important to avoid common pitfalls that weaken DR documentation. These include:

• Assuming procedures work without testing them regularly.
• Documenting ideal-case scenarios while ignoring edge cases or platform limitations.
• Overcomplicating steps to the point where they’re unusable under pressure.
• Leaving out platform-specific behaviors like Redis flush impacts or Solr reprovisioning.

Effective documentation is realistic, testable and designed to be followed during high-stress situations – not written for best-case scenarios.

Documenting platform limitations for honest expectations

Known behaviors aren’t surprises if documented

A strong disaster recovery playbook should also make clear what your systems can’t do and how your team handles those gaps. Omitting platform-specific limitations can create unrealistic expectations during incidents and expose your organization to risk during audits.

For example, Pantheon’s platform automates many aspects of recovery, but not all. Some behaviors require manual intervention and they should be explicitly documented:

• Redis is flushed during multizone failover. Application-level caching will need to be rebuilt. Document expected rebuild times and any cache warming strategies.
• Solr is not automatically reprovisioned. If your site depends on Solr, include the steps to request a manual restore through Pantheon support.
• External APIs and services such as payment gateways, SSO providers or content delivery networks (CDNs) are outside of Pantheon’s DR scope. Each requires its own recovery procedure.

Acknowledging these realities helps ensure your team knows what to expect and how to respond when platform automation ends and manual processes begin.

Plan for performance impacts, not just restoration

Recovery isn’t complete the moment a site is restored. Some processes introduce short-term performance issues that can affect user experience if not planned for. Your playbook should include both the benefits of automated recovery and the follow-up steps required to return to full performance. For example, you might document how to temporarily scale resources or stagger traffic until systems stabilize.

Fill the gaps with first-party procedures

Not everything is covered by platform-level recovery. That’s especially true for third-party systems and integrations. Make sure your DR documentation includes:

• Failover procedures for payment providers, authentication systems and CDNs.
• Contact lists and SLAs for each vendor or service.
• Fallback plans for core dependencies that don’t fail over automatically

If Redis flushes affect session persistence, consider shifting critical session data to MySQL or another persistent store. These workarounds need to be tested and documented, not assumed.

Document costs for reimbursement and budgeting

For government, education and nonprofit organizations, accurate documentation can directly impact disaster recovery funding. Agencies like FEMA require detailed cost breakdowns to reimburse recovery expenses.

Pantheon’s billing structure makes this easier by separating core hosting costs from disaster recovery services. In your playbook:

• Distinguish between baseline hosting costs and incident-specific surges.
• Itemize Elite plan costs tied to multizone failover.
• Include support ticket references, timestamps and any platform usage spikes tied to a recovery event.

Keeping clear records supports both financial accountability and strategic DR investment planning.

Living documentation beats perfect plans

A DR playbook is not a one-time project. Platform capabilities evolve, new systems are introduced and lessons are learned through real incidents. Set a quarterly review cadence that aligns with:

• Platform updates.
• Changes to team structure or escalation roles.
• Newly integrated tools or services.
• Test results and post-incident reviews.

Track known limitations and revise recovery steps as mitigation strategies improve. For example, if DNS TTL changes or if new failover capabilities are added to your plan, update the documentation immediately.

Transform your DR documentation today

As you know by now, disaster recovery documentation is about demonstrating that your team can recover critical systems quickly, effectively and with evidence to back it up. That means moving beyond theoretical plans and creating a playbook rooted in your actual platform capabilities, tested procedures and proven outcomes.

With Pantheon, much of what you need is already being generated. Your environments, automation and operational workflows are a foundation for disaster recovery documentation that’s accurate, actionable and audit-ready.

Try Pantheon today and put your disaster recovery plan on solid ground!