Test Restores as Part of a Backup Plan

A common management saying is that you can’t manage what you can’t measure. This includes the effectiveness of backups. However, you can measure the effectiveness of your backups by regularly performing test restores and tracking the success rate.

Test restores are frequently mandated as part of a backup plan. A test restore simply retrieves a backup tape and attempts to restore data from it. If the data can be restored, the test was successful. If the data cannot be restored, the test is not successful. An unsuccessful test should be investigated.

A test may be unsuccessful due to many reasons:

• The tape could be old or corrupt—You should reevaluate the length of time tapes are kept in rotation or consider purchasing higher quality tapes.
• The tape drive could be faulty—The problem needs to be fixed as soon as possible.

If the drive is faulty, all of the backups are suspect.

• The backup procedures could be faulty—The procedures should be reviewed and corrected. If the procedures are incorrect, all of the backups could have problems.

Whatever the problem, the good news is that you’ve discovered it before a crisis.

If actual data was lost and couldn’t be restored, the problem would be much more serious.

Companies that measure backups often strive for a success rate of over 95 percent. Companies that don’t measure the effectiveness of their backups could have a success rate anywhere from zero percent to 100 percent. They just don’t know until data is lost if the data can be restored or not.


Summarized from the book Risk List and Control - Darril Gibson

Darril Gibson is the CEO of Security Consulting and Training, LLC. He regularly teaches, writes, and consults on a wide variety of security and technical topics. He’s been a Microsoft Certified Trainer for more than 10 years and holds several certifications, including MCSE, MCDBA, MCSD, MCITP, ITIL v3, Security , and CISSP. He has authored, coauthored, or contributed to 10 books including the successful Security : Get Certified, Get Ahead.

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