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Plan backups & prove recovery
Define what is protected, agree recovery targets and test a restore before relying on backups.
Use this planning guidance now for an inquiry and pilot proposal. Service commitments require a written agreement.
Before you start
Inventory critical data and its owner. Backup operation and high availability must be individually confirmed; neither is promised merely by choosing Pro or Business. If protection is a launch requirement, keep the launch blocked until the agreed evidence exists.
Define what recovery means
| Decision | Record |
|---|---|
| RPO | The maximum acceptable amount/age of data loss, based on the business need. |
| RTO | The maximum acceptable time to restore the agreed service, including application validation. |
| Scope | Databases, volumes, application configuration, image references and external dependencies. |
| Protection | Consistency method, schedule, retention, encryption/access, location and restore responsibility. |
A requested RPO/RTO is a requirement to evaluate, not an automatically delivered SLA. Confirm achievable targets and their evidence in the pilot agreement.
Separate availability from backup
Extra replicas may help an application continue after a Pod failure, but they do not recover deleted or corrupted data. Persistent volumes survive some workload changes, but are not an independent recovery copy. A snapshot must be evaluated with the application's consistency requirements; restoring a disk image alone does not prove a database is recoverable.
Run an isolated restore rehearsal
- 01
Prepare a safe target
Use an agreed isolated environment, test data and a named owner. Prevent outgoing email, payments or other live integrations from firing in the restored application.
- 02
Record the recovery point
Create a known test record, note its timestamp and obtain the agreed backup identifier. Preserve configuration and the image reference required to read that data.
- 03
Perform the agreed restore
Use only the qualified method for the pilot. Record start/end times, errors and operator/customer actions. Never rehearse by overwriting the only production copy.
- 04
Validate application data
Read the known record and test the key workflow. Check completeness and permission behavior, then compare achieved recovery time and point with your targets.
Keep the protection useful over time
- ✓Review restore compatibility after application or schema changes.
- ✓Agree monitoring of failed backups, age, storage growth and credential expiry.
- ✓Plan export and retention when ending the pilot; confirm deletion only after checking the copy you keep.
Technical references
These Kubernetes references describe technical behavior. Your pilot agreement defines the capabilities confirmed for your cluster.
Use this guide within your agreed pilot scope. Kubernetes examples are not evidence of a generally available Cloud capability.