Restore from backup

[bekcl88fx]

Hello everyone,

Just a quick question - I have backup on Proxmox backup server. I have verified this backup and it is ok.
If I rule out hardware failures , can the backup be considered 100% recoverable?

Thx

 

[Onslow]

Hello, the proper procedure of backup and restore contains also... a test restoring .
Seriously, one should also restore a backup after creating the backup procedure. Then repeat this from time to time.
Better safe than sorry!

 

[bekcl88fx]

Hello, the proper procedure of backup and restore contains also... a test restoring .
Seriously, one should also restore a backup after creating the backup procedure. Then repeat this from time to time.
Better safe than sorry!

you are 100% right, but right now I don’t have free space to test restore :-(
I know there is always a bit of risk involved if I don’t test recovery, but ,maybe someone with more experience can tell how likely/unlikely is that something will go wrong

 

[Onslow]

you are 100% right, but right now I don’t have free space to test restore :-(

If the backup procedure is the same for multiple VMs, you don't have to test restore all of them.

Probably you have at least some free space for a small VM. Create it, do some activity, create some files, include the VM in the backup procedure, keep it running for a few days, wait until a few backup jobs execute.

Then stop the VM (or "disconnect" its network interface) to avoid the IP address conflict with the to-be-restored VM.

Restore the VM from the backup and verify if the restore went successfully, start the restored VM, log into it, verify if it and its services run OK, check if it contains the files from just before the latest backup (for instance the logs - whether the log entries are up to the moment of backup).

This doesn't require much space and will make you sleep better

 

[bekcl88fx]

Thx for the tip!
I wanted to test it on the most important VM and it’s quite big, but I have not so important smaller one’s that I can test it on.

 

[Kingneutron]

The thing is, no one else can tell you until you actually do a test-restore. It's Schrodinger's backup until you do the thing on your own hardware and verify it for yourself and your environment.