4 ms·

This is a great example of why it's a good idea to always test your backups.

ltbarcly3 4y ago
I came to make this snide comment as well! Nobody tests their backups though, I've only ever seen it done inadvertently when the backups were used as part of the development process.
- yakubin 4y ago
  BTW how do you test a personal workstation backup? I don’t have backup workstations to rotate between by backing one up, restoring on the other, working and then cycling between them in this manner. How do you test the restore procedure without risking destruction of the original?
  - opencl 4y ago
    You can buy an extra storage device and swap them out (either physically or swapping the boot order), as long as your workstation doesn't have soldered in storage.
    - jen20 4y ago
      Even if it does, you can usually boot from an external volume anyway.
  - l33tman 4y ago
    Most backup systems allow you to explore backups and extract individual files. Testing a bunch of files for restoring is at least better than completely ignoring it.. however it's difficult if it turns out part of your backup is simply missing, maybe an erroneous exclusion entry or some path miss (happened to me, I was without backup for a home folder for a year before I noticed it, the /home/user/ was a symlink to another volume that mostly had tmp data and so wasn't backed up). You might not even notice this even if you restore the whole backup, because you can't really be expected to go through everything every time either..
  - b112 4y ago
    md5sum using a bash script and find, then compare on live.
vikingerik 4y ago
You don't need backups. You need restores.
- haswell 4y ago
  Generally speaking, I think this is what testing a backup means.
  - dingosity 4y ago
    I recommend restoring your backup as a test. Restoring a blank tape often doesn't do anything. And if it does do something, it's probably not what you want.
pstuart 4y ago
In the olden days when I was the admin for a small shop we would immediately restore the backup to a second system to be used as a playground. Win/win: verified restore and a place to test/train with production data.
- sixothree 4y ago
  Yup, just as long as none of the connection strings point to (and can reach) a prod database.

I came to make this snide comment as well! Nobody tests their backups though, I've only ever seen it done inadvertently when the backups were used as part of the development process.

yakubin 4y ago
BTW how do you test a personal workstation backup? I don’t have backup workstations to rotate between by backing one up, restoring on the other, working and then cycling between them in this manner. How do you test the restore procedure without risking destruction of the original?
- opencl 4y ago
  You can buy an extra storage device and swap them out (either physically or swapping the boot order), as long as your workstation doesn't have soldered in storage.
  - jen20 4y ago
    Even if it does, you can usually boot from an external volume anyway.
- l33tman 4y ago
  Most backup systems allow you to explore backups and extract individual files. Testing a bunch of files for restoring is at least better than completely ignoring it.. however it's difficult if it turns out part of your backup is simply missing, maybe an erroneous exclusion entry or some path miss (happened to me, I was without backup for a home folder for a year before I noticed it, the /home/user/ was a symlink to another volume that mostly had tmp data and so wasn't backed up). You might not even notice this even if you restore the whole backup, because you can't really be expected to go through everything every time either..
- b112 4y ago
  md5sum using a bash script and find, then compare on live.

vikingerik 4y ago

You don't need backups. You need restores.

haswell 4y ago
Generally speaking, I think this is what testing a backup means.
- dingosity 4y ago
  I recommend restoring your backup as a test. Restoring a blank tape often doesn't do anything. And if it does do something, it's probably not what you want.

pstuart 4y ago

In the olden days when I was the admin for a small shop we would immediately restore the backup to a second system to be used as a playground. Win/win: verified restore and a place to test/train with production data.

sixothree 4y ago
Yup, just as long as none of the connection strings point to (and can reach) a prod database.