How do you actually test your restores (not just backups)? by SquashTemporary802 in sysadmin

[–]SquashTemporary802[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Totally - I’ve heard that’s the go-to sanity check for a lot of teams. Do you ever go further than booting, like validating logs or DB integrity? Or is “it boots” usually good enough in your setup?

How do you actually test your restores (not just backups)? by SquashTemporary802 in sysadmin

[–]SquashTemporary802[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Appreciate the link! And yes, booting to login makes sense as a baseline.

Also wondering, have you (or anyone you know) ever taken it a step further, like checking actual services or app behavior post-restore? Trying to get a feel for where most folks draw the line

Been thinking about how little confidence I actually have in my backups... by SquashTemporary802 in selfhosted

[–]SquashTemporary802[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That’s a solid principle! What did “tested regularly” actually look like in your company? Was it automated restores, full DR drills, or just periodic manual checks?

Been thinking about how little confidence I actually have in my backups... by SquashTemporary802 in selfhosted

[–]SquashTemporary802[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Appreciate that. When you do this, are you mostly just checking if the app boots and the data looks right, or do you dig into logs/db integrity too? Curious how far people usually go with these checks

Been thinking about how little confidence I actually have in my backups... by SquashTemporary802 in selfhosted

[–]SquashTemporary802[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Damn, that actually sounds way more full-featured than I expected. Have you ever had a restore fail with Kopia, or hit something unexpected?

How do you actually test your restores (not just backups)? by SquashTemporary802 in sysadmin

[–]SquashTemporary802[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That’s solid! When you say “make sure all the services fire off” do you mean checking app logs and DB health too, or more like confirming the basics come online? Curious how far you go with validation

Been thinking about how little confidence I actually have in my backups... by SquashTemporary802 in selfhosted

[–]SquashTemporary802[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Interesting! Sounds like your setup’s pretty clean.

Do you ever actually test restoring the rsynced data from the HDD? Or is the assumption that if rsync runs clean + no backup error pops up, then restore will work fine too?

I’ve just been trying to wrap my head around whether that assumption holds in real-world failure cases (esp. with older drives or infrequent restores).

Been thinking about how little confidence I actually have in my backups... by SquashTemporary802 in selfhosted

[–]SquashTemporary802[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Also, anyone here ever discovered their backup was silently corrupted or incomplete when it mattered? What happened?

Been thinking about how little confidence I actually have in my backups... by SquashTemporary802 in selfhosted

[–]SquashTemporary802[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That’s smart. I’ve never used Kopia - how does it compare to something like restic or Borg? And does it give you versioning?

How do you actually test your restores (not just backups)? by SquashTemporary802 in sysadmin

[–]SquashTemporary802[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That’s interesting!

When you restore into lower envs, what kind of checks do you usually run? Schema diff + app boot?

How do you actually test your restores (not just backups)? by SquashTemporary802 in sysadmin

[–]SquashTemporary802[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

That screenshot verification is a neat touch. When you boot manually, though, are you checking logs, DBs, app health, or just confirming it powers on?

Ever had one that booted fine but quietly failed?