DataAI Nexus

Agents / Skills

Backup Restore Drill

Skill

Designs and runs the drill that proves your backups are real: restore from actual backup media to a working system, measure the time, verify the data — because an unrestored backup is a hope, not a plan.

Best for

  • Backups that have never once been restored
  • Knowing your real recovery time before an incident measures it for you
  • Compliance that asks 'when did you last test restores?' and deserves a date

What you give it

  • Your backup setup and a safe place to restore into (it will help define one)

What you get back

  • The drill procedure: from backup selection through restore to verification, documented as it is executed
  • The real numbers: restore duration, data recency achieved, the gap between assumed and actual
  • The findings list: every surprise — the missing credential, the undocumented step, the corrupted archive — found on a calm day

How it works

  1. Restores from real backup media into an isolated target — never touching production, never using production shortcuts.
  2. Verifies like a sceptic: row counts against source, critical records sampled, the application actually running against the restored data.
  3. Measures the honest clock: from 'we need a restore' through every fumble to 'verified working' — fumbles are findings.
  4. Documents the procedure as executed, not as imagined, and schedules the repetition because restore skills and backups both rot.

Example

You: We back up nightly and have never restored. Run the drill.

Result: The drill's findings, on a calm Tuesday instead of a burning Friday: the restore needed a decryption key that lived only in the former admin's password manager (recovered, then moved to the team vault); the documented procedure missed two steps (now written); restore took 3h40m against the assumed 'about an hour' (stated to leadership, who chose to pay for the faster path); and the data verified complete to 23:00 last night — except the uploaded files, which turned out to be on a different, untested backup. Second drill a month later: 55 minutes, no surprises.

Limits — please read

  • A drill proves the path it exercises; multiple backup types (database, files, config) each need their drill — it maps them.
  • Isolated-environment restores approximate production restores; the deltas are named.
  • Costs real time and a safe environment; the alternative costs more on the day that is not a drill.