Running backups day to day: jobs, verification, restores and protecting the backups

Skills you'll practise

• Review a daily backup report and identify failed, stale and unprotected systems against each system's RPO
• Choose the right verification for a goal (integrity check, file restore, full machine boot, bare-metal restore) and record the measured restore time against the RTO
• Explain how retention settings decide how far back you can restore, and spot retention that doesn't meet a stated requirement
• Apply protections to the backup system itself: separate accounts, MFA, immutable or offline copies and approval for deletions
• Handle a restore request safely: verify the requester, restore to an alternate location first and document the result

Course outline

1. 1.Running backups day to dayVideo · 2 min
2. 2.Reading backup results every dayLesson · 17 min
3. 3.Verification, restore tests and retentionLesson · 17 min
4. 4.Protecting the backups and handling restoresLesson · 16 min
5. 5.Running backups day to day: jobs, verification, restores and protecting the backups: knowledge checkKnowledge check · 18 questions
6. 6.Final exam9 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 (backup, recovery objectives, testing)
• NIST SP 800-209: Security Guidelines for Storage Infrastructure (data protection and backup security)
• CISA and partners: #StopRansomware Guide (maintain offline, encrypted backups and regularly test them)