After host moves, storage changes, or path refactors, backup jobs can keep running while protecting less than you think. I run this process after any infrastructure change.
Pre-check
- Confirm source paths still exist and permissions are valid.
- Confirm exclude rules did not unintentionally grow.
- Confirm destination storage has expected free space.
Job verification
- Run one on-demand backup and capture logs.
- Compare file count and data size with prior baseline.
- Check for warnings that were previously absent.
Restore verification
- Restore a representative subset to an isolated path.
- Validate ownership and permissions of restored files.
- Open or hash-verify critical files to confirm integrity.
Reporting
- Record backup job ID/time.
- Record restore test scope and outcome.
- Record follow-up tasks if drift was found.
This whole process usually takes less than an hour and prevents the worst surprise in operations: discovering broken backups during an actual recovery.