Restore Testing Policy

Owner: Anchor MSP Operations Lead Last reviewed: 2026-04-04

Purpose

Ensure backups are actually restorable. A backup that cannot be restored is not a backup.

Scope

All systems under Anchor managed production that have backups configured.

Policy

1. Restore tests are run quarterly for every managed system with backups.
2. Restore test procedure:
   • Select the most recent daily backup.
   • Restore it to an isolated environment (never to production).
   • Verify data integrity: row counts, checksums, or application-level validation as appropriate.
   • Document the result: pass or fail, time taken, any issues encountered.
3. Restore test results are logged and tracked. Each system's restore test history is maintained.
4. A failed restore test is treated as an incident. It triggers immediate investigation. The backup configuration is reviewed, the issue is resolved, and the restore test is re-run until it passes.
5. Any system with no successful restore test in the past quarter is flagged for review by the Operations Lead.

Exceptions

None. If a system has backups, it has restore tests. No exceptions.