Best-Practices for Backup Maintenance Plans

Topic

This article discusses best-practices and tools for performing routine maintenance and health checks on your Datto appliance.

Environment

  • Datto SIRIS
  • Datto ALTO
  • Datto NAS

Description

Your Datto appliance has a variety of features that we recommend you use and check on a regular basis to ensure its ongoing reliability and performance.

These features include:

Device Audit

You can access a device audit by navigating to the Partner Portal and selecting Device Audit under the Status drop-down.

This feature provides a high-level overview of the backup jobs. It lists the last backups taken, whether or not they were successful, and the status of screenshots.

Alerts

Both the Partner Portal and the Datto appliance interface can send alerts. The Partner Portal will send device-centric alerts for conditions such as high temperature, disk errors, or check-in failures. The Datto appliance will send alerts that relate to backup and screenshot verification attempts.

For more information, read the following articles:

Datto Appliance Alerts

Partner Portal Alerts

Remote/Local Web Interface

You should routinely navigate through the Datto appliance interface and perform the following tasks:

File Restore

  1. Mount a recent recovery point at least once per week. Once mounted, browse the restore via the web interface.
  2. Locate a recently modified file, such as a database file, a regularly modified worksheet, or a user profile.
  3. Check the last modified date on that file and make sure that it is within expected parameters.
  4. Check databases to ensure that the modification dates have a good timestamp of last modification.
  5. If a file restore fails to mount, read our File Restore Fails To Mount A Volume article.

Local Virtualization

Once a month, perform a local virtualization on the appliance (if supported) by following the steps in the Starting a Local virtualization article. While the screenshot verification process shows that an agent can perform a successful boot, Datto recommends performing this type of restore to ensure your local virtualization can perform basic tasks unique to your environment, such as opening certain applications or files.

Offsite Virtualizations

Bi-annually, verify that your protected machines can virtualize in the cloud by following the steps in the Performing an off-site virtualization article.

Once a year, you should also schedule a Disaster Recovery / Offsite Virtualization test with Datto Technical Support to ensure your environment can function in the event of a disaster. For more information, read our Preparing for a Cloud Virtualization Test article.

Disaster Recovery Plans

When in a disaster situation, you should have a predefined set of plans for operating in a disaster and recovering from one. Read our Datto Disaster Recovery Guide for assistance on creating a plan best suited for your environment.

Recommended Timetables for Testing

  • Device Audit: Every Day - 2 Days
  • Web Interface: Every 3 - 5 Days
  • File Restores: Every Week
  • Virtual Machines: Every Month (Especially after patches cycles, Microsoft routinely updates Windows every Tuesday)
  • Offsite Virtualization: Bi-annually - yearly
  • Offsite DR Test: Annually

Additional Resources