Cross-account disaster recovery setup using AWS Elastic Disaster Recovery in secured networks (Part 1: Architecture and network setup)

This article provides a comprehensive guide to setting up a secure cross-account disaster recovery (DR) solution using AWS Elastic Disaster Recovery (DRS) in highly secured network environments. The first part of a two-part series focuses on the architecture and network setup for maintaining network isolation and preserving IP addressing schemes.

• Key architectural components include:
  • Four VPCs across two accounts (production and recovery)
  • VPC endpoints for Elastic Disaster Recovery, S3, STS, and EC2
  • VPC peering connections between production and staging VPCs
  • Route 53 private hosted zones for DNS resolution
• Security features include:
• Using AWS PrivateLink to create private connections
• Maintaining network isolation
• Preserving private IP addresses during failover
• Eliminating public internet exposure
• Key steps in the setup process:
  • Create VPC endpoints in staging and production VPCs
  • Establish VPC peering connections
  • Configure Route 53 private hosted zones
  • Validate network connectivity

The solution is designed for organizations in regulated industries requiring strict security controls during disaster recovery operations, ensuring continuous operation and maintaining network configurations during failover events.