· Inchi
A backup is a love letter to future you
Future you is having a very bad morning. Present you can help by testing a restore.
Dear future me,
If you're reading this, something has probably gone wrong. I hope you are sitting down. I also hope the coffee is strong and the error message is more specific than “something went wrong.”
Good news: past me made a backup.
Less good news: past me isn't sure where it is, what's in it or whether the encryption key was on the machine that just died.
Love, Past me
Write a better letter
A better letter says where the backup is, what it contains and where the secrets needed to restore it are kept. It also says when someone last restored it and what they checked, because a backup is only a promise until someone tries it.
A backup is not a second running Server covers what a Server needs to recover and how to test a restore. Do it on a quiet afternoon, not on the bad morning.
Future you won't remember the details of today's setup. Future you may barely remember their own name. Give them a documented restore and they might even say something nice about past you.