More In-Depth Verification

If real “end-to-end” data comparison is required, the only reliable way is to restore to a new file system location on the source system and compare data using tools like diff, as only then the data flow through all the involved components is verified. This scenario is the only one that can help finding problems at the source system’s operating system and hardware level, for example.

Regularly running test restores and comparing the files against their originals is a procedure recommended by Bacula Systems to ensure proper operation of your backup environment. Verify jobs should only be used in addition to this approach, not to replace it.

In sensitive environments, it may be required to do those tests quite often, which results in the goal to do these tests automatically. In cases where this is required, some simple scripts may be created to trigger the needed restore, launch the comparison after the restore is completed, and finally report the results and remove no longer needed data from the set of restored files.