How crucial is your ability to restore your Exchange Server successfully? Many of us know we need to make sure our server is backing up properly, however, how many of us know how to correctly validate our backups? On that note, I can bet that probably at least 75% of people out there do not even know how to validate a backup, let alone perform this. And those that do, may, after reading the rest of this article, realise they are only doing half the steps required to restore a successful backup.

We all know, that without a successful backup, we have no hope in restoring our Exchange Servers, should the need arise. Unfortunately, Exchange is a relatively stable product, and the need to do a restore for most people is unlikely. Because of this, we get complacent. 

Obviously the basic steps to checking out backups are, as everyone knows

1. Review the backup logs and resolve any errors (gimme)
2. Make sure the correct tapes are being used (Don't assume the correct tapes are being used, unless you put them in yourself)
3. Disable Circular Logging (gimme)

Now I know we all do this, don't we? The next step is one which some places never do, and some do it every so often. Realistically, it depends on how much data you can afford to loose. None you say? Then do it every full backup.

1. Restore the databases from backup

This is a quite simple one really. Obviously,  don't restore these over your live system databases. This is a great method for making sure your backups can be restored. And generally, a lot of problems will come to light when doing this, however, there is one more step to ensure the databases are not corrupt! There's no point in restoring a corrupt database is there?

1. Run ESEUTIL /G

This is the only way you can ensure your backup is corruption free and restorable completely. It's also a good maintenance check. If there are corruptions in the backup, then there's a good possibility that your live databases are corrupt, just waiting to explode the day before your holidays!

Make sure you record that your backup has been verified completely, along with the date etc. Should you ever need, you will know that this is definitely your last known good backup. Do this every full backup, and if a disaster should ever occur, you know that your backside is covered.