How to Test AWS Disaster Recovery for Graviton Workloads

Introduction

Moving an application to AWS Graviton changes more than the EC2 instance type. Graviton uses the Arm64 architecture, so the operating system, binaries, native libraries, container images, monitoring agents, and recovery configuration all need to support that architecture.

Disaster recovery introduces another requirement: it is not enough for the primary workload to run correctly on Graviton. The recovery environment must also be able to start the workload, restore the required data, connect to its dependencies, and handle production traffic within the required Recovery Time Objective (RTO) and Recovery Point Objective (RPO).

AWS now supports AWS Graviton-based Arm64 source servers in AWS Elastic Disaster Recovery (AWS DRS). AWS DRS can replicate an Arm64 EC2 source server and recover it to a Graviton instance, making DR drills directly applicable to Graviton workloads.

This article explains how to design and test a disaster recovery process for Graviton workloads without treating DR as a configuration checkbox.

What Makes Graviton DR Different?

At a high level, a DR test for a Graviton workload looks like this:

Primary Region
    |
    | Graviton / Arm64
    |
    v
Application
    |
    +---- Database
    +---- Object Storage
    +---- Queues
    +---- Secrets
    +---- External Services
    |
    v
Replication / Backup
    |
    v
DR Region
    |
    | Graviton / Arm64
    |
    v
Recovered Application

The recovery environment must preserve the processor architecture expected by the workload.

For example, if the production application is an Arm64 Linux application, recovering it onto an incompatible x86 configuration can cause failures at the operating-system, binary, container, or native-library level.

AWS DRS specifically validates that the recovery instance architecture matches the source architecture. For an Arm64 source server, the recovery instance must use a compatible Graviton instance type.

Define RTO and RPO Before Testing

A DR test should begin with measurable objectives.

Recovery Time Objective

RTO answers:

How long can the application remain unavailable?

For example:

Application failure
       |
       | 15 minutes
       v
Application available

The target RTO is therefore 15 minutes.

Recovery Point Objective

RPO answers:

How much recent data can the business afford to lose?

For example:

Last recoverable data
       |
       |---- 5 minutes ----|
       |
Failure

An RPO of five minutes means the organization accepts up to approximately five minutes of data loss under the defined recovery scenario.

The exact target should come from business requirements rather than from the capabilities of a particular AWS service.

Start With an Architecture Inventory

Before running a drill, identify every component required by the application.

A useful inventory looks like this:

Component	Primary	DR Requirement
EC2	Graviton	Compatible Graviton instance
AMI	Arm64	Arm64 recovery image
Database	Primary Region	Replication or backup
S3	Primary Region	Cross-Region strategy if required
Secrets	Primary Region	Available in DR
IAM	Account/Region dependent	Required permissions
VPC	Primary Region	DR networking
Load Balancer	Primary Region	DR traffic path
DNS	Primary Region	Failover mechanism
Monitoring	Primary Region	DR observability

This prevents a common DR mistake: testing only the EC2 server while assuming the rest of the application will automatically follow.

Verify Graviton Compatibility

The first technical test should confirm that the complete software stack supports Arm64.

Check:

Operating system
Runtime
Native libraries
Database drivers
Monitoring agents
Security agents
CLI utilities
Container images
Build artifacts
Third-party dependencies

AWS recommends testing the application on Graviton and establishing a performance baseline rather than assuming that an application behaves identically across processor architectures.

For container workloads, multi-architecture images are particularly important.

For example:

docker buildx build \
  --platform linux/amd64,linux/arm64 \
  -t myapp:latest \
  --push .

This produces an image that can support both architectures when the application's dependencies are compatible.

Build the DR Environment With Infrastructure as Code

Avoid manually creating the recovery environment during an emergency.

Use infrastructure as code for resources such as:

VPC
 ├── Subnets
 ├── Route Tables
 ├── Security Groups
 ├── IAM Roles
 ├── Load Balancer
 ├── EC2 / Auto Scaling
 └── Monitoring

This reduces configuration drift and makes repeated DR testing practical.

AWS specifically recommends managing configuration drift in the DR environment and keeping AMIs, infrastructure, data, and service quotas current.

Choose the Recovery Strategy

AWS provides several broad DR approaches, from backup and restore to multi-Region active-active architectures. The appropriate strategy depends on the workload's RTO, RPO, cost, and operational requirements.

For a Graviton EC2 workload, a recovery architecture might look like:

Primary Region                    DR Region

Graviton EC2                      Graviton EC2
      |                                ^
      |                                |
      +------ Replicated Data ---------+
      
             DNS / Traffic
                  |
                  v
          Active Environment

The DR Region does not necessarily need to serve production traffic continuously. It can remain passive until a recovery event or drill.

Use a Recovery Drill Before a Real Failover

A recovery drill is safer than immediately performing a production failover.

AWS DRS defines a recovery drill as a non-disruptive test that launches drill instances while the source environment and replication continue operating.

The basic process is:

Production Graviton Server
          |
          v
Continuous Replication
          |
          v
DR Environment
          |
          v
Launch Drill Instance
          |
          v
Run Validation
          |
          v
Terminate Drill

This lets the team test recovery without intentionally taking the production workload offline.

Test the Complete Application

Starting an EC2 instance is not the same as recovering the application.

After the drill instance starts, validate:

Operating System

Confirm that the instance boots successfully and all required services start.

Application Process

Check that the application starts without missing libraries or architecture-specific binaries.

Database Connectivity

Verify that the application can connect to its DR database or recovered database endpoint.

Secrets

Confirm that required secrets and credentials are available.

Network Connectivity

Test:

DNS resolution
Outbound connectivity
Internal service connectivity
Security group rules
Route tables
Required VPC endpoints

External Dependencies

Identify services outside the recovery environment that the application cannot function without.

A successful EC2 boot is only the first checkpoint.

Measure the Recovery Time

Do not estimate RTO from configuration values.

Measure it.

Record timestamps such as:

T0 = Failure declared
T1 = Recovery initiated
T2 = Recovery instance launched
T3 = Application started
T4 = Dependencies validated
T5 = Traffic redirected
T6 = Application confirmed healthy

Then calculate:

RTO = T6 - T0

This gives the team an actual measured recovery time for the tested scenario.

Validate Data Recovery

A recovered application can still be unusable if the data is stale or incomplete.

Validate:

Latest available transaction
Database consistency
Object availability
Queue state
File availability
Application configuration
Required secrets
Expected replication point

For example, if the application records orders:

Production:
Order #1050
Order #1051
Order #1052
Order #1053

Recovered:
Order #1050
Order #1051
Order #1052

The missing records help determine whether the actual recovery point meets the defined RPO.

Test Traffic Switching

Recovery and failover are different operations.

AWS DRS can launch recovery instances, but traffic redirection is handled separately, commonly through DNS or another traffic-management mechanism.

A test might therefore include:

Normal

Users
  |
  v
Primary Region
  |
  v
Graviton Application


DR Test

Users
  |
  v
Traffic Management
  |
  +---- Primary
  |
  +---- DR Graviton

During a controlled test, verify:

DNS behavior
TTL assumptions
Health checks
Load balancer configuration
Application readiness
Client retry behavior
Connection draining

Do not assume that changing a DNS record instantly moves every client to the recovery environment.

Test Performance After Recovery

A recovery instance that starts successfully may still be unable to handle production traffic.

Measure:

Request latency
Error rate
CPU utilization
Memory utilization
Network throughput
Database latency
Queue processing
Application throughput

Graviton performance should be tested under realistic workloads. AWS notes that Graviton instances have a different vCPU-to-physical-core relationship from x86 instances and recommends fully loading comparable instances when establishing performance characteristics.

For DR testing, the question is not simply:

Did the server start?

It is:

Can the recovered environment sustain the required production workload?

Test Failure Scenarios

A good DR program tests more than one failure.

Examples include:

Scenario	What to Validate
EC2 instance failure	Automatic recovery
Availability Zone failure	Multi-AZ behavior
Region failure	Cross-Region recovery
Database failure	Data recovery
Network failure	Connectivity and routing
Dependency failure	Graceful degradation
Deployment failure	Rollback
Configuration drift	Recovery consistency
Capacity shortage	DR capacity planning

The exact scenarios should reflect the actual architecture.

Test Graviton-Specific Failures

Add architecture-specific checks to the DR runbook.

For example:

[ ] Arm64 AMI available
[ ] Graviton instance type available
[ ] Native libraries support Arm64
[ ] Container image supports Arm64
[ ] Monitoring agent supports Arm64
[ ] Security agent supports Arm64
[ ] Startup scripts support Arm64
[ ] Runtime supports Arm64
[ ] Recovery configuration selects Arm64

This is particularly important for workloads containing native dependencies.

Test With AWS Elastic Disaster Recovery

AWS DRS is now directly relevant to Graviton EC2 source servers.

As of September 2026, AWS DRS supports 64-bit Linux Arm64 EC2 source servers, with recovery to Arm64 instances. The current limitation is important: this support is for AWS-hosted Graviton source servers; Windows on Arm64, on-premises Arm64 sources, other-cloud Arm64 sources, and the DRS Failback Client are not supported in this scenario.

This makes DRS a useful option for organizations that have already moved EC2 workloads to Graviton and want a recovery workflow that preserves the architecture.

Common Mistakes

Testing Only Server Recovery

An EC2 instance starting does not prove that the application has recovered.

Recovering to the Wrong Architecture

An Arm64 workload needs a compatible recovery environment.

Ignoring Native Dependencies

A JavaScript or Python application may still depend on native binaries through packages or system libraries.

Testing Without Realistic Data

A tiny test dataset may hide replication and performance problems.

Measuring Only Startup Time

RTO should include the complete recovery process required to restore service.

Ignoring Configuration Drift

A DR environment that worked six months ago may no longer match production.

Never Testing Failback

Recovery is only one half of the lifecycle. A complete DR strategy should also define how normal operations are restored.

Best Practices

Define RTO and RPO before designing the test.
Maintain an explicit inventory of Graviton-compatible dependencies.
Use infrastructure as code for the recovery environment.
Keep Arm64 AMIs and container images current.
Run regular non-disruptive recovery drills.
Test the entire application, not only EC2 startup.
Measure actual recovery time instead of estimating it.
Validate the recovered data against the RPO.
Test traffic redirection separately.
Include realistic production load in performance validation.
Monitor configuration drift between Regions.
Document every failure discovered during a drill.
Update the recovery runbook after each test.
Test failback as well as recovery.
Re-test after major application, infrastructure, or dependency changes.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Using AWS DRS for Graviton DR

Advantages	Considerations
Supports Graviton Arm64 source servers	Current Arm64 support has specific source-platform limitations
Provides recovery drills	The application still requires end-to-end validation
Can reduce manual recovery work	Recovery configuration must remain current
Supports recovery and failback workflows	Traffic switching remains an external responsibility
Preserves processor architecture during recovery	Graviton compatibility still needs application-level testing

Production DR Test Checklist

Architecture
[ ] Production architecture documented
[ ] DR architecture documented
[ ] Arm64 dependencies identified
[ ] Graviton instance types validated

Data
[ ] RPO defined
[ ] Replication tested
[ ] Database recovery tested
[ ] Object storage recovery tested
[ ] Data consistency validated

Application
[ ] Application starts on recovered instance
[ ] Native dependencies work
[ ] Secrets are available
[ ] Network connectivity works
[ ] External dependencies are reachable

Recovery
[ ] Drill completed
[ ] RTO measured
[ ] RPO measured
[ ] Traffic switching tested
[ ] Production-like load tested
[ ] Monitoring validated
[ ] Failback procedure tested

Operations
[ ] Runbook updated
[ ] Configuration drift reviewed
[ ] Service quotas reviewed
[ ] Ownership documented
[ ] Recovery findings tracked

Summary

Disaster recovery for AWS Graviton workloads should be tested as an end-to-end application recovery process, not simply as an EC2 launch test.

The most important Graviton-specific requirement is architectural compatibility. The recovery environment must use an appropriate Arm64 configuration, and the operating system, application binaries, native dependencies, agents, and container images must all work correctly on Graviton.

AWS Elastic Disaster Recovery now supports AWS Graviton-based Arm64 source servers, including recovery to Graviton instances. Recovery drills can be used to validate the process without interrupting the source environment.

A mature DR test measures four things:

Can we recover?
       +
Can we recover the data?
       +
Can the application handle traffic?
       +
Can we do it within RTO/RPO?

If those questions are answered through repeatable drills rather than assumptions, the recovery process becomes something the team has actually demonstrated rather than something that exists only in documentation.