Can I Test Disaster Recovery in a Single Region?

Just to clarify, having high availability doesn't equate to proper disaster recovery. There are plenty of scenarios, like data corruption or deletion, that Multi AZ won’t cover. I recommend reading more about the differences in the AWS documentation [here](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/whitepapers/latest/disaster-recovery-workloads-on-aws/high-availability-is-not-disaster-recovery.html). This can help you understand the importance of having a full DR plan.

If you have Multi AZ configured but no second region, my take is to set up that secondary region temporarily for testing. Although it might incur costs initially, you can run tests and then minimize costs with scripts to minimize idle costs afterward. Testing the failover process is vital as it poses risks if not validated.

One approach is to clearly communicate to your leadership the potential risks tied to your current setup. You can gauge downtime and recovery time as part of a DR ‘test’ even without a secondary region. Discuss the costs and benefits of moving to a full DR setup versus what you currently have, since it really depends on your business’s specific needs.

You can definitely test the failover process even with Multi AZ configured, as it’s still part of the testing. Also, don't forget to run database restoration tests and track how long they take. It’s useful for disaster recovery planning, even if you don’t have a full secondary region set up.