Restoring from backup, on purpose

A backup you have never restored is a hope, not a backup.

Twice a year I restore a random directory to a scratch machine and diff it against the original.

1. Pick a directory at random
2. Restore it to /tmp on another host
3. Compare checksums
4. Write down how long it took

The time it takes is the number that matters during a real outage.

Filed under Backups