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Defend · Backups and restore tests

Servers

A server is restored as a whole machine, not as a folder of files. So we keep images of each server apart from the machine itself, and test the whole way back before anything is switched.

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A server comes back whole, or it doesn’t come back.

A file server, a domain controller, the machine your practice software runs on: when one of them goes, your people need the server back, working, with its settings, accounts and the links between them, not a folder of files to rebuild it from. So servers are backed up as whole machines, and a restore brings a server back as it was. The images live apart from the servers they protect, so a fault in the machine, or a wrong click on it, doesn’t reach its copy. And before anything is switched, migrated or taken over, the whole environment is restored in a test, so the way back is known before it’s needed.

What we set up

Images, kept apart, and a test before the switch.

How often each server is backed up and how long its images are kept is agreed with you from what the server holds: a file server and a licence server don’t lose the same thing in a day.

  • Whole-machine images

    Each server is backed up as an image, operating system, settings and data together, so a restore brings back a machine that works.

  • Kept apart from the server

    The images live outside the machine they protect and outside the account that runs it. A server that fails, or is deleted by mistake, doesn’t take its own copies with it.

  • A full test recovery before a switchover

    Before a migration, a takeover or a provider exit, the whole environment is restored in an isolated copy of the network, sealed off from the internet. Missing accounts and wrong recovery passwords show up there, not on the night.

  • The way back before anything is touched

    No change to a server starts before a fresh backup has been taken and a restore from it has been tested. The night that counts has a way back agreed in advance.

  • A file, a folder or the whole machine

    From the same image, a single file, a folder or the whole server can be restored. A deleted folder doesn’t need a whole server brought back, and a lost server doesn’t need rebuilding by hand.

On record

On record for your servers.

  • Each server, with how often it’s backed up and how long its images are kept
  • Where the images live and who can reach them
  • The date and result of the last full test recovery

What usually goes wrong without it.

  • Files backed up, the server not

    The data is safe, but the server that served it has to be rebuilt by hand from memory. The restore takes days instead of an evening.

  • The backup inside the same tool

    The only copies sit in the tool that runs the servers, under the same admin account. When the tool fails, or deletes the wrong machine, it takes the copies too.

  • The first real restore is the real one

    A restore first attempted on the night of a switchover finds the missing local admin account, the wrong recovery password, the server nobody listed.

Also under Backups and restore tests

Questions we get

Do you test a full recovery before a migration or a takeover?

Yes, and that’s where the faults show up. In one provider exit, the test recovery found missing local admin accounts and a domain controller recovery password that didn’t match the handover. Both were fixed, and new backups taken, before the real move.

What if the wrong server is deleted?

Then the images count: they live outside the machine and outside the account that runs it, so a deleted server doesn’t take its copies with it. The restore brings it back as a whole machine, as it was at the last image.

Our servers run in Azure. Isn’t that enough?

Azure keeps the machine running; it doesn’t keep a copy from a chosen day unless that’s set up. We set that up: an image of each server, with its retention on record, and a restore from it tested and dated.

Start

Could your servers come back tonight?

In a first call we go through which servers you run, where their backups live, and when a whole server was last restored in a test.

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