The survivability of multi-domain optical networks is the key issue for assessing the optical networks performance, which has a close relationship with real deployment. It becomes the most stringent problem, which must be resolved as soon as possible. Focused all the attention on survivability schemes under the high speed, multi-service-driven multi-domain optical networks environment, and based on the traits which are multi-service and distributed control for optical network, we analyze the problems and challenges of survivability in multi-domain optical networks. The classification of survivability problems is researched in multi-domain optical networks. According to the requirement of resilience for multi-domain optical networks, associated key techniques are classified and some core techniques are discussed. Moreover, the direction for future work is indicated.