Backup and RESTORE

When did you last test a full restore of your Windows Server?

Best Practice (Litmus Test)

Professionals: Have tested a full server restore in the last 6 months

Amateurs: Carry on backing up but they have no idea if the tapes will restore!

Best Practice for Backup and RESTORE

One of my questions to companies is: ‘Have you tried a restore lately?’  In some waysthis is a cheap shot because hardly anyone tests a full restore every week. Nevertheless do think about restore; you have invested in good software like BackupExec orArcServe, how would you feel if you try a restore and it fails?

At first I did not believe the statistic that 35% of all backups do not restore in the way thatyou think.  But as I visit sites, the reasons for these failures becameapparent.  Letme illustrate best practice with four sad case histories.

Case A.  The Shifting Files

Backup does its job perfectly.  It is just that the important files were moved to a new folder on a different drive.  Example: old settings = d:\accounts,  new settings e:\superaccounts.  Carelessly, the newfolder e:\superaccounts was not included in path for the backup job.  A variation of thisproblem isstill backing up the old server when you have moved all the data to the newserver!

For an in-depth appreciation of backup, check out this article:
Kick the Tape! By Eric B. Rux, MVP

Case B.  The Nervous Backup Operator

The boss buys a box of tapes and shows thetimid assistant how to insert the first tape into the drive.  On day onebackup works brilliantly.  But on day two the operator cannot eject thetape; so being timid, but resourceful, they get out the Tippex.  You haveguessed what happened next, they write today’s date on the label and repeatevery day.  Guess whathappens when you want to restore last weeks data?  You only get yesterday’sincremental backup.

Case C. The ‘Rambo’ Operator

New young strapping lad wishes to make an impression.  The backup tape was reluctant to eject.  No problem to our young Rambo – he ripped the tape out, drive and all!  At least with Rambo you knew you had a problem, so many of the backup / restore faults only show up when the disaster strikes.

Case D. Check that backup deals with open files

In my opinion backing up open files used to be Microsoft’s Achilles’ heel, if it was not so, then BackupExec would never have become acommercial best seller.

In Windows 2000 backup had a fatal flaw, it will not backup open files.  More than onecompany has relied on Windows 2000 to backup SQL andExchange 5.5 databases.  Big mistake.  When they wanted to restorethere were no database files on the tapes.

Good news, in Server 2003, Volume Shadow Copy has been designed to deal with this very problem of open files.

Always check the Event Viewer logs, especially after backup.

Challenge: Try a full restore on a spare machine – only a 65% chance it will do what you think! 

See more litmus tips »

Litmus Tests

Guy’s Litmus test is a concept that you can apply anywhere.  Each test gives you an instant answer to the simple question:-  ‘Are you dealing with a professional, or are they an amateur?   Is this the real deal, or is it a turkey?’   The Litmus Test concept is rather like Best Practice, but it reduces a 27 page report to one sentence. 

Try another of my Litmus tests »

Learn about Windows 8

• Install Windows 8  •Windows 8 Configuration Settings  •Backup  • WEB IIS 

•Windows 8 Metro UI  • Web Help Desk  • Network Litmus Tests  • SolarWinds Dameware Review

• Windows 8 Registry  • Windows 8 Group Policy Examples  • Network Performance Monitor