When comparing Restic alternatives, make restoration the primary acceptance test. A backup command that exits successfully does not prove files can be recovered when the original machine is gone.
Recovery drill
- Back up a sample with many small files, a large file, metadata, and a changed file.
- Store the repository credentials and encryption password through a separate recovery process.
- Restore to a clean machine or isolated directory with no access to the source.
- Compare checksums and permissions, and measure recovery time against your target.
- Simulate a missed schedule and a corrupted or unavailable repository; verify alerts and secondary copies.
Compare repository portability, retention rules, deduplication, remote storage support, and operational complexity. Keep the existing backup until multiple restores from the new method have passed.
Akousa