Implementation Checklist

Phase 1: Automated Backup System (Week 1)

  • Configure encrypted S3 bucket for Vault snapshots
  • Generate and escrow backup encryption key material
  • Deploy automated backup job (daily at 02:00 UTC)
  • Encrypt backups with AES-256-GCM
  • Verify checksum validation after upload
  • Enforce retention (30 daily, 12 monthly snapshots)
  • Execute manual backup verification
  • Configure failure alerts for backup workflow

Phase 2: Backup Restoration (Week 2)

  • Document manual restoration runbook
  • Implement automated restoration script
  • Test snapshot decryption
  • Test Vault snapshot restoration in staging
  • Verify secrets accessible post-restore
  • Schedule weekly restore validation
  • Record RTO/RPO metrics

Phase 3: VPS Migration Workflow (Week 3)

  • Implement automated VPS migration script
  • Validate Vault secret retrieval during migration
  • Confirm SSH key deployment on new VPS
  • Confirm SMTP credential recovery
  • Confirm DKIM key installation
  • Send and validate post-migration test email
  • Document migration procedures
  • Conduct migration drill

Phase 4: High Availability Setup (Weeks 4-5)

  • Provision three Vault nodes
  • Configure Raft consensus storage
  • Deploy PostgreSQL primary and two replicas
  • Configure HAProxy/Nginx load balancer
  • Verify automatic failover path
  • Configure health checks (5-second interval)
  • Validate audit log replication
  • Measure failover time (< 30 seconds target)

Phase 5: Monitoring and Alerting (Week 5)

  • Deploy Vault health monitoring script
  • Scrape Prometheus metrics
  • Publish Grafana dashboards
  • Configure alert rules (seal status, replication lag, backup status)
  • Wire notification channels (email, Slack, PagerDuty)
  • Test alert delivery for every severity
  • Document monitoring and escalation procedures

Phase 6: Disaster Recovery Drills (Week 6)

  • Schedule quarterly drill cadence
  • Document drill scenarios (vault failure, cluster loss, VPS compromise, credential compromise)
  • Implement drill automation scripts
  • Execute initial drill for vault server failure
  • Produce drill report and share findings
  • Remediate issues surfaced during drill
  • Update procedures with lessons learned

Phase 7: Emergency Response Procedures (Week 6)

  • Document breach response workflow
  • Implement emergency secret rotation scripts
  • Prepare tenant notification templates
  • Test emergency seal/unseal sequences
  • Test unseal key rotation workflow
  • Document post-incident review process
  • Train responders on emergency procedures

Phase 8: SMTP Credential Recovery Integration (Week 7)

  • Integrate SMTP recovery into VPS migration job
  • Validate SMTP credential decryption path
  • Reconfigure MailU using recovered credentials
  • Verify webmail login after recovery
  • Document SMTP disaster recovery steps
  • Reference SMTP recovery documentation in runbooks
  • Conduct integrated SMTP recovery drill