How often do you check backups and test restores?

I separate the routine check from the restore test. Check backup results and failure alerts daily, then investigate and rerun failed jobs as needed. A successful job report tells you something, but it isn't the same as proving you can recover the system.

For restores, a monthly test of key virtual machines is a reasonable target. Boot them in an isolated environment and check that the expected data is accessible. A broader disaster recovery exercise can be less frequent, such as annually.

Start with what the business can tolerate. A system that can't be down for long deserves more frequent testing than one that can wait. Laws, internal policies and certification requirements may also set a schedule for you.

An annual disaster recovery test may be what some teams can manage, while others test quarterly or more often. I wouldn't treat one interval as the answer for every system.

Automation makes frequent testing a lot more practical. You can schedule a restore of a VM into an isolated network, check that it boots and that expected files or data are present, then clean up the test instance and raise an alert if something fails.

That doesn't have to replace a manual restore exercise. A quarterly hands-on test is a useful way to check whether the team can actually carry out the recovery process, not just whether the automated check passed.

Mix up what you restore. A file, a whole VM, a storage volume and a failover exercise each test different parts of recovery. A monthly ticket with a different task and a different team member can also keep the procedure familiar to more than one person.

Don't overlook small file restores while waiting for the next big exercise. A few files checked weekly and a full server restore monthly give you different kinds of coverage without making every test a full disaster recovery drill.