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2025-04-20 / 1 min / growing

Reliable backup checklist

A short operational checklist for database backup jobs and recovery drills.

Before calling a backup workflow complete:

  • Record database engine and version.
  • Verify the dump command exit code.
  • Hash the artifact before upload.
  • Confirm remote object size and retention policy.
  • Emit duration, size, and failure metrics.
  • Notify on missed schedules, not only explicit failures.
  • Restore into a clean environment on a schedule.
  • Measure recovery time and record manual steps.

A green backup job does not replace a tested recovery path.

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