Restore testing and recovery documentation: test plans, measured results and recovery procedures
For systems administrators and MSP technicians who already run backups and restore files, and now need to prove a whole service can be recovered and write it down so someone else can repeat it. It builds on 'Running backups day to day'. You'll choose the right depth of test, write a test plan with measurable success criteria, calculate achieved recovery time and data loss against the RTO and RPO, write a recovery procedure as a checklist, and write an after-action report that changes the plan. It uses NIST SP 800-34 and SP 800-84 (US federal guidance, used here as a well-documented model) and Veeam's SureBackup documentation as a worked tool example; your organisation's continuity policy sets test frequency and approvals. Ends with a supervisor-graded restore test of a lab system.
- Level
- Intermediate
- Length
- About 100 minutes
- Contents
- 5 lessons · final exam
- Status
- Published · updated 10 Oct 2026
Skills you'll practise
- Choose the type and depth of restore test (component, system or comprehensive test; tabletop or functional exercise) for a system from its impact and recovery objectives
- Write a restore test plan with scope, scenario, objectives, success criteria, participants and an isolated test location
- Calculate achieved recovery time and data loss from a restore test log and compare them with the RTO and RPO
- Write a recovery procedure in step-by-step checklist form that someone else can follow under pressure
- Write an after-action report that records results, deviations and corrective actions, and update the plan
Course outline
- 1.Choose the type and depth of restore testLesson · 16 min
- 2.Write a restore test planLesson · 18 min
- 3.Calculate achieved recovery time and data lossLesson · 16 min
- 4.Write a recovery procedure in checklist formLesson · 16 min
- 5.Write an after-action report and update the planLesson · 14 min
- 6.Restore testing and recovery documentation: test plans, measured results and recovery procedures: knowledge checkKnowledge check · 14 questions
- 7.Restore testing and recovery documentation: test plans, measured results and recovery procedures: practical exerciseKnowledge check · 1 question
- 8.Final exam10 questions · passing it completes the course, so people who already know the material can test out
Sources it draws on
The lessons and questions are written from these references, so learners can go back to the original.
- NIST SP 800-34 Rev. 1: Contingency Planning Guide for Federal Information Systems
- NIST SP 800-84: Guide to Test, Training, and Exercise Programs for IT Plans and Capabilities
- Veeam Backup & Replication User Guide: SureBackup Job
- Veeam Backup & Replication User Guide: Step 4. Specify Recovery Verification Options and Tests
See it with your own jobs and topics
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