We ask every new client the same question: "When did you last restore a backup?" The most common answer is silence.
Why backups fail quietly
A backup is a job that succeeds in the log every night, which is exactly what makes it dangerous. It might be:
- Incomplete: it saves the database but not the attached files, so invoices come back without their attachments.
- Stale: it stopped months ago when the disk filled up, and nothing said so.
- Unrestorable: taken from a version you no longer run.
What we do
We take a daily copy of the database and the files together, and store it away from the server that runs your system. Then we do the part everyone skips: we restore it.
The test restore
Once a week we restore the latest copy to an isolated environment and check three things: the site runs, the last recorded document is there, and the attachments open. If any of them fails, it's a fault fixed that day — not a discovery on the day of the disaster.
A restore point before every change
Before every upgrade or app install we take a manual copy. The worst time to find out the nightly copy is three days old is halfway through a failed upgrade.
One question for your team
Ask whoever runs your system today: "If we needed yesterday's data back, how many hours would it take?" If the answer isn't a number, the real answer is: we don't know.
