{
  "id": 12315961,
  "title": "Your Backups Don't Exist Until You've Restored One: A Monthly Drill for a Solo SaaS",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/06/your-backups-dont-exist-until-youve-restored-one-a-monthly-drill-for",
  "topic": "tech",
  "section": "Tech",
  "published": "2026-10-06T06:16:24.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Dev.to",
    "slug": "dev-to",
    "url": "https://dev.to/posting-dude/your-backups-dont-exist-until-youve-restored-one-a-monthly-drill-for-a-solo-saas-54ip"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "The article emphasizes the importance of regularly testing and restoring backups for solo SaaS founders. Many founders assume they have backups but find out when they actually need them that no backups are working. The author recounts a major incident at GitLab.com in January 2017, where six hours of production data was lost due to a failed backup.\n\nTo ensure backups are effective, the author recommends a monthly restore drill. This process takes about an hour initially but can be completed in 20 minutes thereafter. The steps include:\n\n1. Obtaining a real backup, not just the live database. Use daily snapshots or point-in-time restores provided by the provider or create custom dumps.\n2. Restoring into a throwaway database, never over the production database. Create a fresh database using tools like createdb and pg_restore.\n3. Verifying the restored backup by running queries against it and comparing the results with the production database. Check key data points like the number of users, the latest user activity, and specific customer records.\n4. Timing the entire restore process to determine the recovery time.\n5. Documenting the process in a runbook, including where backups are stored, how they are accessed, the commands used, and the time taken for the restoration.\n6. Deleting the scratch database after the drill to prevent any potential data leakage.\n\nThe author warns about common pitfalls, such as silent failures, using the same cloud account for backups as production, and restoring directly into production during a panic. The monthly restore drill not only helps in disaster scenarios but also serves as a valuable tool for selling to customers by demonstrating the company's commitment to data safety. It also aids in communicating effectively during actual restoration processes, as it provides clear documentation that can be shared with stakeholders.",
  "summary": "Ask a solo SaaS founder about backups and you usually get the same answer. \"Yeah, the host does daily backups.\" Then you ask when they last restored one, and it gets quiet. A backup you never restored is a guess. It might be fine. It might be an empty bucket. That's not me being dramatic. In January 2017 GitLab.com lost about six hours of production database data after an engineer wiped the wrong…",
  "key_points": [
    "Monthly restore drill crucial for solo SaaS founders to validate backups.",
    "Process takes about an hour initially, 20 minutes thereafter.",
    "Verifying restored backup through queries and comparing with production data."
  ],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}