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B U Y E R ' S G U I D E

Buyer's Guide: Tape Backup

February 5, 2001
By Steven J. Schuchart Jr.

Testing Your Backups

Every administrator has an "I learned the hard way" story--and it's usually about backups and data loss. Administrators must learn from such tales of horror and understand that backups are worthless if they're not tested.

Having convinced your company to buy your favorite backup software, you'll be hard-pressed to find an excuse (and maybe a new job) if it fails to restore data. Testing is essential to ensure your software and hardware are working correctly. Backups of particularly troublesome items, such as NDS and Active Directory trees, should be tested in an isolated environment on similar equipment. Don't wait for disaster to strike to discover that your software doesn't work very well with NDS or needs an update to handle it properly. Iron out your procedures and methodologies beforehand so in the event of disaster you'll have an idea of how long it will take to restore vital servers. Not having such procedures in place is like working in a carpentry shop where no one knows first aid.