🛡️ Case Study: Bulletproofing Genesis Infrastructure with ChaosMonkey DR Drills

Date: May 10, 2025
Organization: Genesis Hosting Technologies
Lead Engineer: Doc (Genesis Radio, Infrastructure Director)

🎯 Objective

Design and validate a robust, automated disaster recovery (DR) system for Genesis infrastructure — including PostgreSQL, MinIO object storage, and ZFS-backed media — with an external testbed (Linode-hosted) named ChaosMonkey.

🧩 Infrastructure Overview

Component	Role	Location
PostgreSQL	Primary/replica database nodes	zcluster.technodrome1/2
MinIO	S3-compatible object storage	shredder
ZFS	Primary media storage backend	minioraid5, thevault
GenesisSync	Hybrid mirroring and integrity check	Deployed to all asset nodes
ChaosMonkey	DR simulation and restore target	Linode

🧰 Tools Developed

`genesis_sync.sh`

Mirrors local ZFS to MinIO and vice versa
Supports verification, dry-run, and audit mode
Alerts via KrangBot on error or drift

`run_dr_failover.sh` & `run_dr_failback.sh`

Safely fail over and restore PostgreSQL + GenesisSync
Auto-promotes DB nodes
Sends alerts via Telegram

`genesis_clone_manager_multihost.sh`

Clones live systems (DB, ZFS, MinIO) from prod to ChaosMonkey
Runs with dry-run preview mode
Multi-host orchestration via SSH

`genesis_clone_validator.sh`

Runs on ChaosMonkey
Verifies PostgreSQL snapshot, ZFS datasets, and MinIO content
Can optionally trigger a GenesisSync --verify

🧪 DR Drill Process (Stage 3 - Controlled Live Test)

🔒 Freeze writes on production nodes
📤 Snapshot and clone entire stack to ChaosMonkey
🔁 Promote standby PostgreSQL and redirect test traffic
🧪 Validate application behavior and data consistency
📩 Alert via KrangBot with sync/report logs
✅ Trigger safe failback using snapshot + delta sync

🚨 Results

Recovery time (RTO): PostgreSQL in 3 min, full app < 10 min
Zero data loss using basebackups and WAL
GenesisSync completed with verified parity between ZFS and MinIO
Repeatable: Same scripts reused weekly for validation

💡 Key Takeaways

Scripts are smarter than sleepy admins — guardrails matter
ZFS + WAL + GitOps-style orchestration = rock solid DR
Testing DR live on ChaosMonkey builds real confidence
Failure Friday is not a risk — it’s a training ground

🌟 Final Thoughts

By taking DR out of theory and into action, Genesis Hosting Technologies ensures that not only is data safe — it’s recoverable, testable, and fully verified on demand. With ChaosMonkey in the mix, Genesis now embraces disaster… on its own terms.

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