Restore Verification
Whether the backups actually work — cadence, scope, and depth of restore testing.
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Maturity preview · Initial

Restore verification

Test cadence + last test

How often the district actually exercises a restore — not how often backups run. A backup that's never been restored is operational fiction; the test is the only thing that proves the backup posture works.

Date of the most recent successful restore test. Staleness threshold = F1 cadence + 90 days; if F1 is Never, this stays empty.

Named role that owns scheduling, running, and reporting on restore tests. MSP-led counts if it's contractually scheduled and reported.

Test scope

What level of restore was actually performed. Single-file restore proves the backup readable; full-system or end-to-end DR proves the recovery posture works under realistic conditions. Bigger scope = stronger evidence.

Which criticality tiers (from Recovery Objectives F4) have been included in restore tests. Multi-select.

Where the restore was performed. Isolated sandbox is the gold standard (no production blast radius); production is risky but real; dev/QA is a useful middle ground.

Verification depth

How the restored data was checked. Hash check proves bit-for-bit equivalence; spot check is human-visual; none means the restore succeeded but no one confirmed the data is good.

Whether the restored system was actually exercised. User-acceptance test (someone logs in, runs typical operations) is the gold standard; admin check confirms the system starts but not that it's usable.

Whether the actual time-to-restore was recorded and compared to F2 RTO in Recovery Objectives. Even "exceeded RTO" is more useful than "not measured" — it's the input to RTO refinement.

Notes