registry_bc_dr.md

copyright	years 2022, 2026
lastupdated	2026-08-11
keywords	DR for {{site.data.keyword.registryshort_notm}}, high availability for {{site.data.keyword.registryshort_notm}}, disaster recovery for {{site.data.keyword.registryshort_notm}}, failover for {{site.data.keyword.registryshort_notm}}, BC for {{site.data.keyword.registryshort_notm}}, DR for {{site.data.keyword.registryshort_notm}}, business continuity for {{site.data.keyword.registryshort_notm}}, disaster recovery for {{site.data.keyword.registryshort_notm}}, disaster recovery, responsibilities, locations, data
subcollection	Registry

{{site.data.keyword.attribute-definition-list}}

Business continuity and disaster recovery for {{site.data.keyword.registryshort_notm}}

{: #bc-dr}

Find out about the business continuity and disaster recovery strategy for {{site.data.keyword.registryshort_notm}}, including your responsibilities and IBM's built-in redundancy measures. {: shortdesc}

Disaster recovery{: term} involves a set of policies, tools, and procedures for returning a system, an application, or an entire data center to full operation after a catastrophic interruption. It includes procedures for copying and storing an installed system's essential data in a secure location, and for recovering that data to restore normalcy of operation.

Your responsibilities when you're using {{site.data.keyword.registryshort_notm}}

{: #bc-dr-responsibilities}

For more information about your responsibilities when you're using {{site.data.keyword.registrylong_notm}}, see Shared responsibilities for {{site.data.keyword.registrylong_notm}}.

Disaster recovery strategy

{: #bc-dr-strategy}

{{site.data.keyword.cloud_notm}} has business continuity{: term} plans in place to provide for the recovery of services within hours if a disaster occurs. You're responsible for your data backup and associated recovery of your content.

{{site.data.keyword.registryshort}} provides mechanisms to protect your data and restore service functions. Business continuity plans are in place to achieve targeted recovery point objective{: term} (RPO) and recovery time objective{: term} (RTO) for the service. The following table outlines the targets for {{site.data.keyword.registryshort}}.

Disaster recovery objective	Target Value
Recovery point objective (RPO)	48 hours
Recovery time objective (RTO)	24 hours
{: caption="RPO and RTO for {{site.data.keyword.registryshort}}" caption-side="bottom"}
{: #table_registry_bc_dr_rpo_rto}

Locations for service availability

{: #bc-dr-locations}

For more information about service availability within regions and data centers, see Service and infrastructure availability by location.

FAQ about disaster recovery

{: #bc-dr_faq}

Review the following frequently asked questions about disaster recovery.

Does the service replicate the data?

{: #bc-dr_replicate_data}

All customer data in {{site.data.keyword.registrylong_notm}} is replicated and backed up. Backups include service and policy settings and image data, but not vulnerability results, which can be reconstructed. All data, including vulnerability results, is replicated within each region so that the loss of a single availability zone is tolerated transparently. Regular point-in-time backups are used by {{site.data.keyword.IBM_notm}} to restore the content if the data is corrupted. More backups are created in other regions with compatible privacy policies that are used by {{site.data.keyword.IBM_notm}} to restore the service in a disaster situation.

The following table shows the backup locations.

Environment	Environment that was formerly known as	Active location	Backup location
au-syd	ap-south	au-syd	jp-tok
br-sao	Not applicable	br-sao	us-south
ca-mon	Not applicable	ca-mon	ca-tor
ca-tor	Not applicable	ca-tor	us-east (service and policy settings) \n \n ca-mon (images)
eu-de	eu-central	eu-de	eu-gb
eu-es	Not applicable	eu-es	eu-de
eu-gb	uk-south	eu-gb	eu-de
global	Not applicable	us-east	us-south
in-che	Not applicable	in-che	jp-tok
in-mum	Not applicable	in-mum	in-che
jp-osa	Not applicable	jp-osa	jp-tok
jp-tok	ap-north	jp-tok	au-syd
us-south	Not applicable	us-south	us-east
{: caption="Backup locations" caption-side="bottom"}
{: #table_registry_bc_dr_backup_locations}

What data is backed up or replicated?

{: #bc-dr_backup}

The image data, service settings, and policy settings are backed up by {{site.data.keyword.IBM_notm}}.

Are users required to replicate the data?

{: #bc-dr_client}

You're not expected to replicate your images. However, you can create a service instance in another {{site.data.keyword.registrylong_notm}} region. You can also choose from a range of tools, including pushing to multiple locations from your development pipeline, and the use of replication tools, such as skopeo copy{: external}. {{site.data.keyword.IBM_notm}} doesn't replicate service instances. For more information, see High availability for {{site.data.keyword.registryshort_notm}}.

What happens if a disaster occurs?

{: #bc-dr_recovery}

{{site.data.keyword.IBM_notm}} has targets for the recovery point objective (RPO) of 48 hours and the recovery time objective (RTO) of 24 hours. These targets help ensure that your data is protected and service functions are restored promptly if a disaster occurs. If a region is not available, {{site.data.keyword.IBM_notm}} restores the region and the user data, subject to the RPO of 48 hours, therefore up to 48 hours of newly created or changed data might be lost.

If the region that you use is unavailable, you cannot automatically access your data in another region. If you want highly available, 24x7, data, you are responsible for creating a comprehensive disaster recovery plan. For example, a comprehensive disaster recovery plan might entail pushing your images to two separate {{site.data.keyword.registrylong_notm}} regions, and being able to access your data from either region. For more information, see High availability for {{site.data.keyword.registryshort_notm}}.