Control 2.4: Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery - Portal Walkthrough

This playbook provides portal-based configuration guidance for Control 2.4.

Overview

This walkthrough guides you through configuring BC/DR capabilities in the Power Platform Admin Center, including creating DR environments, configuring backups, and setting up monitoring.

Part 1: Classify Agents by Criticality

Before configuring BC/DR infrastructure, classify agents by business criticality.

Criticality Tiers

Tier	Description	RTO	RPO	Examples
Tier 1 - Critical	Business cannot operate	<1 hour	<15 min	Trading assistant, Payment processor
Tier 2 - High	Significant impact	<4 hours	<1 hour	Customer service, Compliance agent
Tier 3 - Medium	Moderate impact	<24 hours	<4 hours	Internal HR bot, IT help desk
Tier 4 - Low	Minimal impact	<72 hours	<24 hours	Personal productivity agents

Document in BC/DR Plan

For each agent, capture: - Agent ID and name - Business owner - Criticality tier - Dependencies (data sources, connectors, integrations) - Recovery priority order

Part 2: Create Secondary Region Environments

Portal Path: Power Platform Admin Center > Environments > + New

Steps

Navigate to Power Platform Admin Center (admin.powerplatform.microsoft.com)
Select Environments > Click + New
Create DR Environment:
Name: "[Primary Env Name]-DR"
Region: Select different geographic region
Type: Production
Purpose: Disaster recovery for [Primary Env]
Configure Environment:
Enable Managed Environment
Apply same DLP policies as primary
Configure same security roles
Document Region Mapping:

Primary Region	DR Region
East US	West US

Select two regions that meet your organization's data residency and operational resilience requirements.

Part 3: Configure Dataverse Backup Settings

Portal Path: Power Platform Admin Center > Environments > [Environment] > Backups

Steps

Navigate to Power Platform Admin Center
Select Environments > Choose production environment
Click Backups in the left navigation
Review System Backups:
Microsoft provides automatic daily backups (retained 28 days)
System backups occur automatically
Configure Additional Protection:
Click Schedule backup for on-demand backups before major changes
Document backup schedule in BC/DR plan
Note Limitations:
System backups restore entire environment
For granular agent restore, use solution-based backup

Part 4: Deploy Agents to DR Environment

Portal Path: Power Platform Admin Center > Solutions > Import

Initial DR Deployment

Import latest solution backup to DR environment
Configure environment variables for DR region
Test agent functionality in DR environment

Configure Connection References

Update connection references to use DR-region resources
Create service accounts for DR environment
Document connection mapping

Part 5: Configure Service Health Monitoring

Portal Path: Microsoft 365 Admin Center > Health > Service health

Steps

Navigate to Microsoft 365 Admin Center
Select Health > Service health
Click Preferences > Email
Enable alerts for:
Power Platform
Dataverse
SharePoint Online (if used for knowledge)
Microsoft Entra ID

Communication Plan

Severity	Response Time	Notification
Critical	Immediate	Phone + SMS + Email
High	15 minutes	Email + Teams
Medium	1 hour	Email
Low	Next business day	Email

Part 6: Create DR Runbook

DR Declaration Process

Trigger Criteria:
- Primary region unavailable >30 minutes
- Microsoft declares regional outage
- Security incident requiring failover

Declaration Authority:
- CIO or delegate
- IT Operations Director
- On-call manager (after hours)

Notification List:
- Executive leadership
- Business unit heads
- IT operations team
- Customer communications team

Recovery Runbook - Tier 1 Agents

Step 1: Verify DR Environment Status (5 min)
[ ] Login to DR environment
[ ] Verify agent solutions are deployed
[ ] Confirm connectivity to data sources

Step 2: Activate DR Agents (15 min)
[ ] Update DNS/traffic routing to DR
[ ] Enable agent endpoints
[ ] Verify OAuth connections

Step 3: Test Agent Functionality (15 min)
[ ] Execute test conversations
[ ] Verify data source connectivity
[ ] Confirm critical functions working

Step 4: Communicate Status (5 min)
[ ] Notify stakeholders of DR activation
[ ] Update status page
[ ] Log DR event for regulatory purposes

Total Estimated Time: 40 minutes

Failback Procedure

Pre-Failback Checklist:
[ ] Primary region confirmed stable
[ ] Microsoft all-clear received
[ ] Data sync verification complete

Failback Steps:
[ ] Synchronize any DR changes to primary
[ ] Update routing to primary region
[ ] Test primary agent functionality
[ ] Deactivate DR agents (standby mode)
[ ] Document failback completion

Part 7: Schedule and Conduct DR Testing

Annual DR Test Process

Pre-Test Planning (2 weeks before): - Schedule test window with stakeholders - Notify affected business units - Prepare test scenarios - Brief DR team

DR Test Execution:

Test Scenario: Regional Outage Simulation

Phase 1: Failover (Target: <1 hour for Tier 1)
- Simulate primary region unavailability
- Execute DR declaration process
- Activate DR environment
- Route traffic to DR

Phase 2: Operation (2-4 hours)
- Execute business-critical transactions
- Test all Tier 1 agent functions
- Verify data integrity
- Monitor performance

Phase 3: Failback (Target: <2 hours)
- Confirm primary region available
- Synchronize data changes
- Execute failback procedure
- Verify primary operation

Post-Test Documentation: - Test results summary - RTO/RPO achievement status - Issues encountered - Corrective actions - Lessons learned - Sign-off from business owners

Back to Control 2.4 | PowerShell Setup | Verification Testing | Troubleshooting

Updated: January 2026 | Version: v1.2