How do we set up a proper restore drill?
Restore drill = you pretend a disaster happened and rebuild on separate hardware. Four times a year minimum. Otherwise you do not know if it works.
Try this first
- 1Plan a drill day, block it on people's calendars. Not squeezed in; this is real work.
- 2Pick a scope: once a year full restore (all systems), three times a year partial (one server or fileshare). Write down up front what 'success' means.
- 3Restore on separate hardware or in an isolated VM environment. Never on top of production, not even 'carefully'.
- 4Clock the time: hours until data is readable, hours until applications run. That is your real RTO, not the theoretical one.
- 5Write a short report: what went well, what failed, what to change. That document is evidence for insurance and NIS2.
When to bring us in
First drill? Do not do it alone. We guide the first run and build a repeatable runbook so you do it yourself later. Two days of work on average.
See also
- We have backups but we do not know if they workA backup that cannot be restored is not a backup. Testing matters as much as taking the backup.
- Suspected ransomware: what to do RIGHT NOWThe first 30 minutes are critical. One wrong move spreads the damage. Read before acting.
- Someone accidentally deleted an important folderUsually fine to recover. The trick: do not save anything new on that drive until you know how.
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