Brussels, 22 April 2009 – EURid, the registry for the .eu top-level domain, will test its business continuity plan on Saturday, 25 April. This controlled test is needed to help EURid make sure it can keep .eu up and running should unexpected events occur outside of its control.
"Although our business continuity plan has been carefully developed, only a simulation of a possible emergency situation will help us test its validity," explains Marc Van Wesemael, EURid’s General Manager. "This key experience will help us fine-tune the plan."
As part of the test, the .eu registry will move registration services from its master site to a mirror site and back again. As a result, several hosts and services for .eu registrars will be unavailable during various periods between 06.00 and 18.00 CEST.
The DNS service for .eu will not be impacted during the test, which means that the public will be able to access .eu websites as usual. EURid’s website for the general public, www.eurid.eu, and its WHOIS search function will also be available as usual.
All registration activity done while the mirror site is active will be live, including new domain names and updates. This means new registrations will be recorded and returned to the master site at the end of the exercise with no loss of information.
"Most of the test time will be dedicated to guaranteeing a safe return to the master site," notes Van Wesemael. "Downtime during the test will be much longer than the downtime expected if EURid is ever forced to respond to a real-world emergency."