Recovery

Recovery

What does recovery mean, and are my backups recoverable or how do I determine that my backups are recoverable?

 

Recovery is the process of retrieving data from a previously created backup.

There are many reasons for this, be it from accidental or intentional alteration, overwriting or deletion of the data, hardware failure, errors in the software, virus attack, disasters, etc.. In the process, the data is written back to the original or a new storage location.

Thus, the backup / data protection is to protect against losses. However, the backup itself can also be affected by the previously mentioned problems. It runs on hardware, software is used for the backup, data may have been changed for a long time, overwritten or infected by viruses.

The danger of hardware failures or regional disasters can be mitigated by remote backup copies. But whether backups are really restorable as expected and desired is usually only determined in an emergency. Regular restore tests and scans of the backed up data can help to find out in advance.

Ideally, all backed up data should be tested, since restoring individual data or systems usually works well, but does not prove that the entire environment can be restored. Due to the amount of data, these tests should also be automated.