Write a restore procedure and have somebody else run it

applied · 50 min · Objective 4.3

Task

Write the restore procedure for your own data, then have a second person -- or yourself, working only from the document -- carry it out. Every question they have to ask is a step your document is missing, and on the real day nobody will be there to answer them.

Steps

  1. Write lab/procedure/restore.md as numbered instructions from a cold start: where the backups are, what credentials are needed and where they are stored, what software is needed, the steps, and how long each stage takes.
  2. Record where the document itself lives in lab/procedure/location.md, and confirm it is reachable when the thing being restored is unavailable.
  3. Have somebody else follow it, or follow it yourself using nothing else, restoring to an alternative location.
  4. Record every question that had to be answered from memory in lab/procedure/gaps.csv with header question,step_it_belongs_to,added.
  5. Update the procedure to close every gap, and record the verification in lab/procedure/verified.md: what was restored, how long it took, and what proved it worked.

Verify

grep -Ec '^[0-9]+\.' lab/procedure/restore.md
grep -Eic 'credential|key|password manager|where' lab/procedure/restore.md
grep -Eic 'printed|off.?line|outside|separate' lab/procedure/location.md
awk -F, 'NR>1 && NF>=3 {n++} END {print n" gap(s) found"}' lab/procedure/gaps.csv
awk -F, 'NR>1 && $3 ~ /yes/ {n++} END {print n" gap(s) closed"}' lab/procedure/gaps.csv
grep -Ec '[0-9]' lab/procedure/verified.md

Eight or more numbered steps, credentials and keys addressed, a document location that is not only on the system being restored, and every gap closed. A gaps file with no rows means the procedure was followed by somebody who already knew the answers.

Notes

A restore procedure stored exclusively on the encrypted file server you are restoring is a very common and entirely predictable failure. Print it.

This is an independent study companion for CompTIA A+ Core 2 220-1202 and is not produced by or endorsed by CompTIA.