1. Introduction

On Saturday, 16 March 2024, Deutsche Börse will offer a test scenario according to its T7 disaster recovery concept for the current release T7 12.0. This particular scenario renders the T7 back end of the Equinix data centre (FR2) inaccessible. The co-location facility will still be accessible so that co-location customers can also access the disaster recovery infrastructure.

The test window will be provided on Saturday afternoon (Central European Time) according to the following schedule:

The T7 production environment will be re-started for the business day 18 March 2024 on Sunday evening, 17 March 2024, at the usual time.

2. Participation requirements/Required action

Participation in the T7 disaster recovery test is not only strongly recommended by Deutsche Börse, but also seen as an essential part of the industry’s disaster recovery readiness. Please make sure that your Chief Operations Officer as well as your Chief Compliance Officer are made aware of the test and that it is treated with the required priority. 

Deutsche Börse kindly requests all Cash Market Trading Participants to regularly take part in the T7 disaster recovery test. 

Participation will serve to ensure that all requirements and demands for the transition to the disaster recovery environment are met, that the necessary emergency procedures are in place and have been successfully executed on a regular basis. 

The validation of these emergency procedures is crucial for Deutsche Börse Cash Market and its Trading Participants not only to be compliant with the respective Business Continuity Processes but also to ensure continued market integrity.

All Trading Participants are kindly requested to provide Deutsche Börse with the respective feedback regarding their T7 disaster recovery test planning by Friday, 16 February 2024 at the latest. 

Please note: Feedback is required per trading venue (XETR/XFRA) the Trading Participant is active on. 

Feedback can be provided using the T7 disaster recovery test feedback form/s. For your convenience, an online submission process has been set up:

T7 Disaster Recovery Test Feedback Form – Xetra (XETR)

T7 Disaster Recovery Test Feedback Form – Börse Frankfurt (XFRA)

Please enter your dedicated Xetra PIN (valid for both trading venues) in the online questionnaire. The PIN for your company has been sent to your Central Coordinator.

3. Details of the initiative

This particular T7 disaster recovery test scenario will simulate a partial outage of the Equinix data centre (FR2) facility. In such a scenario, the infrastructure regularly used for the T7 simulation environment will be re-used to serve as disaster recovery production infrastructure. However, the co-location facility will remain up and running and affected Members which have access to that disaster recovery infrastructure will be able to participate in the test.

During the T7 disaster recovery test, production reference data will be used, including User IDs, T7 GUI SSH keys and ETI/FIX LF sessions. Changes which have been made to this reference data will NOT be copied back to the production environment after the test. It is not advisable to perform any changes to this data during the test exercise.

While order entry, modification and deletion will be possible during the T7 disaster recovery test, any order book or trading information created during the test will NOT be transferred back to the production environment. 

The following Cash Market interfaces and reference data will be available during the T7 disaster recovery test:

• Xetra T7 Trader- and Admin-GUI
• Enhanced Transaction Interface (ETI)
• FIX LF Interface 
• Xetra Market Data Interface (MDI)
• Xetra Enhanced Market Data Interface (EMDI) - XETR only
• Enhanced Order Book Interface (EOBI)
• Reference Data Interface (RDI)
• Reference Data File (RDF)
• Common Report Engine (CRE)

Trading Participants taking part in the T7 disaster recovery test can expect to receive market data via MDI, EMDI and EOBI and read reference data via RDI or RDF. Order entry will be possible via ETI, FIX LF and the Trader GUI. 

The T7 disaster recovery test can be regarded as successful when at least one of the three following conditions have been met:

• EITHER a message “Connection Test Xetra <hh:mm:ss>” or “Connection Test Börse Frankfurt <hh:mm:ss>", respectively, appears with an increasing sequence number in the market news view (news board) of the T7 Trader GUI and the T7 Admin GUI.
• OR a successful session or trader login via ETI has been performed and EMDI/EOBI/RDI heartbeats have been received.
• OR a successful session or trader login via FIX LF has been performed and EMDI/EOBI/RDI heartbeats have been received.

The following Cash Market T7 interface will NOT be available during the T7 disaster recovery test:

• Extended Market Data Service

C7 SCS will not be participating in the T7 disaster recovery test.

Eurex Exchange will also be offering the same test opportunity on the same day, allowing both Eurex Trading Participants and Cash Market Trading Participants to test T7 disaster recovery test scenarios simultaneously.

Please refer to the attached document “T7 Disaster Recovery Concept - Interface Configuration Details” for further details on the T7 disaster recovery test and all required network changes.

The updated document will be available on the Xetra website www.xetra.com under the link:

Technology > T7 Trading architecture > System Documentation > Release 12.0 > Network Access

After the T7 disaster recovery test has been completed, the regular production environment will be made available for a certain time period for a re-connect test in order to allow Trading Participants to adapt their configurations and test connectivity to the production environment if required.

Please note that Trading Participants are responsible for adapting their internal infrastructure and processes to ensure that no internal test data (orders, trades, etc.) generated during the T7 disaster recovery test is transferred to downstream production systems.

Further information