Test the proper execution and integrity of a backup

Question

Every night my company generates automated backup all our servers on a backup server:

-- backups folder
---- server1 backups folder
------ server1_backup_files.7z
------ server1_backup_db.7z
---- server2 backups folder
------ server2_backup_files.7z
------ server2_backup_db.7z
---- server3 backups folder
------ server3_backup_files.7z
------ server3_backup_db.7z
---- etc

Now I have to automatically test the proper execution and integrity of the backups for each night:

• If I have the number of backup I expect
• If no archive is corrupt
• Receive an alert otherwise

I have no idea how to do these tests.

Then how to automate it and with what language(s)? or a programm?

I guess that's common in big companies.

I am looking for thought or articles to guide me.

Edit 1 : backups are done with Cobian Backup 10 on each server and sent to the server dedicated to backups

Answer 1

With my limited knowledge about your scenario this is what I would personally do:

1. Figure out if the 7z has a way to test integrity of the backup.
2. Unpack the archive and repack it, then check to see if the original archive and the re-packed version are the same.

If both of these tests are passed, I think you are ok with your files. As for the DB, I guess you'd have to import the DB to a test instance and see if it is successful.

As for your list, you could probably automate all of this with a scheduled script, but I'm not great with writing batch files so I'll leave that up to you to figure out!