Protecting Your Platform
Backup & Recovery Strategies
Design backups you can actually restore, and test them before you need them.
Learning objectives
- Apply the 3-2-1 backup rule
- Automate and verify backups
- Practice recovery with drills
The 3-2-1 rule
Keep three copies of your data, on two different media, with one copy off-site. A backup stored beside the server it protects is lost in the same fire or ransomware event.
Automation and verification
Manual backups get forgotten. Automate them and verify the result - a backup that cannot be restored is not a backup. Test restores on a schedule, not just after a disaster. A scheduled job such as a nightly cron task can run the backup for you.
Recovery drills
Run a full restore drill at least once a quarter. Measure the recovery time and improve the process until a restore is boring and routine.
Key takeaways
- Off-site copies survive local disasters.
- Automated, verified backups beat manual effort.
- Untested backups are liabilities.