Backups should be routine not only for folks in the IT. If you’re reading this you probably already have SOME backup process in place. Ideally automatically or with a scheduled reminder.
But doing backups regularly is just half the story …
The other half is verifying that your backups can actually be restored. A backup is only as good as its ability to bring your data back to life. If you can’t restore it, the backup might as well not exist.
I know, that sounds so straightforward, but in practice, it’s easy to fall into a couple of traps. Over the years, I’ve encountered more than a few backup strategies that looked solid but had some “unpleasant” surprises when it came to restoring.
Unpleasand Surprises
Backups that worked flawlessly during initial setup failed months later when a restore was attempted. I ran into this twice with commerical software and incremental backups. After the second time, I lost trust into that software and changed the strategy — again. Luckily I discovered that during a restore test not in a scenario where I had to rely on it.
Another time, the encryption key I used to secure the backups was not the one that I had noted. Or maybe it was but when i tried to decrypt my backup, it didn’t work. So I had a 700GB offsite backup with un-decryptable data. “Great”.
Another time the sync to the offsite location had failed — not completely! That’s something I would have noticed, but in parts.
And especially with encrypted backups: Think about the desaster recovery. If the decryption key is only on the device that has crashed, you won’t have access to the key. Leaving you with all your files backed up securly — but unfortunately also inaccessibly by yourself.
The Illusion of a Working Backup
It’s tempting to assume that if a backup completes without errors, it’s ready for a restore. But backups can degrade over time. Software updates can introduce incompatibilities, network errors might go unnoticed or storage media deteriorates.
A backup that worked perfectly a year ago might fail today because of several reasons. And experience shows: it can happen. Without regular testing, you won’t know there’s a problem until it’s too late.
The common misunderstanding — assuming that because you have a backup, you can use it might just not be true.
Test It!
The only way to ensure your backups are reliable is to test the restore process. This doesn’t mean just checking that the backup files exist or that the software reports a successful backup.
It means actually restoring some data! For sure, not after every backup run. But just trying to restore some files every quarter might be a good reminder.
Not only will it show if your restore works technically. It will also show if you know how to restore. If you are hesitating to execute a quick restore-test, be honest to yourself about the why! If restoring is too complex, cumbersome or you don’t really know how, this should be a red alert that you might not be able to hanlde the recovery process under the stress of a disaster recovery situation.
Keep in mind: You can tests in a mentally relaxed time. When you really need the recovery, you might be stressed!
For Your Own Sake: Test It
As I wrote above: Backups are only one half of the equation. The other half is the ability to restore them when it matters most. Don’t wait for a crisis to find out if your backups are ready.
Test them now, and save yourself the headache later.
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