Test your backups!

The purpose of making a backup is to be able to restore it at some point.  Many of the companies I visit do regular backups but haven't ever restored one of them.  If you really want to be safe, test the process to pull a SQL Server backup from off-site storage and restore it.  I'm watching a company do this right now and they are struggling.  We have a trouble ticket open with the backup software vendor to understand why we can't access our backups.

I suggest you test your backups quarterly or twice a year.  Want a reminder?  I've started a Twitter account for SQLTeam.  I'm going to make one post per day.  Each post will be a tip or reminder to help you manage SQL Server better.  For example, every quarter I'm going to remind you to test one of you backups.

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